CRYPTO TALKS

The rebound comes amid a planned crypto summit hosted by Donald Trump and BlackRock’s inclusion of bitcoin in its model portfolios. What to know: Bitcoin’s price has risen above $84,400, while the broader CoinDesk 20 Index rose more than 1.5% in a day. U.S. President Donald Trump will host a crypto summit   on March 7, featuring prominent figures from the industry BlackRock has added its spot bitcoin ETF to one of its model portfolios. The cryptocurrency market is showing initial signs of recovery from its  worst month in three years  after the price of bitcoin (BTC) plunged to $78,000 in a week that saw the space’s total market capitalization drop by over $400 billion. The dip in prices saw the  Crypto Fear & Greed Index  plunge to 10, a level that hadn’t been seen since the 2022 bear market. However, it has since recovered to 20 while still being in the “extreme fear” range. Bitcoin’s price has now risen more than 3% in the last 24-hour period to now trade...

Theft deals blow to an industry that has been reinvigorated by Donald Trump’s re-election Ethereum coins were stolen from Bybit’s offline or ‘cold’ wallet In a significant security breach, Dubai-based cryptocurrency exchange Bybit has reported the theft of approximately $1.5 billion worth of Ethereum. The incident occurred during a routine transfer from a cold wallet to a warm wallet, where attackers manipulated the transaction interface, gaining control over the cold wallet and transferring its contents to an unknown address. Hackers have stolen approximately $1.5 billion in crypto tokens from Bybit in what the exchange has called the largest theft in the industry’s history. Bybit’s CEO, Ben Zhou, revealed on X that Ethereum coins were drained from the exchange’s offline “cold” wallet. In a live-stream update, he stated, “As far as we know, this could be the largest hack in the history of our industry.” Bybit's CEO, Ben Zhou, has assured clients that the exchange remains solvent,...

James Alexander was employed as the CCO of Cred, a crypto lender that filed for bankruptcy in November. Cred, a cryptocurrency platform being investigated by the bankruptcy court in Delaware, had a U.K. fugitive as its chief capital officer (CCO). James Alexander was employed as the CCO of Cred, the crypto lender that  filed  for bankruptcy in November with liabilities of between $100 million and $500 million. Alexander had been convicted of crimes relating to illegal money transfers in the U.K. in December 2007 and sentenced to over three years in prison. Subscribe to  First Mover , our daily newsletter about markets. SUBSCRIBE By signing up, you will receive emails about CoinDesk products  and you agree to our  terms & conditions  and  privacy policy . According to the court examiner’s report filed Monday (see below), there was a prison break at the facility where Alexander was incarcerated and he was identified by the U.K. government a...

Bitcoin (BTC) and the cryptocurrency industry have gained  popularity  in recent months, in tandem with Bitcoin’s  price journey  up to $50,000 and beyond. Given the likely influx of new market participants, here are five things I would have liked to know when I became interested in the industry years ago.  Investing in cryptocoins or tokens is highly speculative and the market is largely unregulated. Anyone considering it should be prepared to lose their entire investment. Bitcoin Can Be A Currency Or A Store of Value Essentially, Bitcoin is a way to send value from one person to another, without needing to provide sensitive details, such as banking information and credit card numbers. Although it began as a transactional currency, as  detailed  in its original description published in 2008, Bitcoin has become  known  more as of a store of value asset similar to gold in recent years. Bitcoin is easy to move, borderless and is not tied to any...

Ethereum (ETH)   fans are celebrating the news that Ethereum scaling solution,   Optimism , is now set to launch on the network's mainnet next month, ahead of schedule. But what does this mean both for Ethereum and its users? "Mainnet in March. Scaling is coming to Ethereum,"  commented   SetProtocol  product marketing manager Anthony Sassano on the latest  announcement  by Optimism: the team has said that they'll be launching arbitrary contract deployment on mainnet in March instead of public testnet, with details to follow.  So what's the big deal? Layer 1 (L1) is the base protocol (the Ethereum blockchain), while Layer 2 (L2) is any protocol built on top of Ethereum. Optimism is an L2 scaling solution, which allows for the Ethereum mainnet to be 'unburdened' from the great number of transactions it has to process. It uses optimistic rollups to achieve lower fees and latency, as well as greater throughput compared to Ethereum L1 alone. The team ...

UK’s NHS Taps Blockchain Tech to Monitor Coronavirus Vaccine Cold Chain Hedera Hashgraph's blockchain platform will provide the health service with a tamperproof record of vaccine temperatures, the firm said. COVID-19 vaccine  -   Tanzeel Akhtar The U.K. National Health Service (NHS) is working with blockchain platform Hedera Hashgraph to monitor COVID-19 vaccines’ temperature while in cold storage. Asset-monitoring company Everyware will provide software to track the vaccines' temperature around the clock, while Hedera’s distributed ledger technology will provide the NHS with a tamperproof and efficient record of the data, according to a press release Tuesday. NHS facilities in the U.K.’s South Warwickshire, Stratford Upon Avon and Warwick hospitals region will be using the technology initially, with a wider rollout planned as vaccine distribution progresses. The vaccines need to be kept well below freezing in order to prevent spoiling, so accurate monitori...

Hong Kong Crypto Robbers Strike Again: Gang Makes off with 450k Tether Haul Trading crypto in person is becoming increasingly risky in Hong Kong – with a second trader this month robbed by violent thugs after agreeing to swap cash for tokens offline. Per the South China Morning Post and Apple Daily’s Hong Kong site, the latest victim was attempting to make an offline tether (USDT) transaction worth some USD 0.45m in the busy Chong Yip Street. The media outlets stated that a female trader had sold a man USDT in two previous transactions worth around USD 77,000 and USD 90,000 each in previous transactions and had arranged for her uncle to wait outside an office building on the street while she conducted the third – much bigger – deal. But instead, when she met the man for the third time, she received the nastiest of surprises, when she reportedly came face-to-face with a gang of three “20- to 30-year-old” thugs armed “with knives and sticks” who robbed her of the cash the man had give...