Bitcoin Surpasses $22,000, But Analysts Warn of Correction; Axie Infinity jumps 40%

Bitcoin (BTC) once again had big swings over the weekend, reaching the $23,000 mark on Saturday, which it hasn’t seen since August of last year. However, the world’s largest cryptocurrency lost some momentum on Sunday, but still above $22,000.

As a result, BTC finished the last week up more than 8%, reaching accumulated gains of 37% so far in 2023, with investors ignoring the recent news of the bankruptcy filing by the Genesis brokerage in the United States. United.

Joe DiPasquale, CEO of crypto fund manager BitBull Capital, said the price increase was typical of the early quarters and noted “a long period of consolidation that has seen traders shorts accumulating”. “The market soared, partially fueled by a short squeezehe said, adding cautiously that “Bitcoin and several altcoins are overheated and need to undergo a correction.” “In the week ahead, market participants should be aware of downside risks and potentially chase profits.”

Ethereum (ETH) followed a similar movement and this morning recorded a slight increase in its 24-hour cumulative price, which was quoted above $1,600. The second-largest cryptocurrency by market capitalization is up about 4.5% in the past week and 35% since December 20.

Most other major cryptocurrencies also rose, although AXS, the Axie Infinity platform token and the [ativo=YGG]the game guild’s native encryption play to earn Yield Guild Games, are up more than 40% and 18% respectively.

The weekend rally in cryptocurrencies followed a positive Friday for stock indexes, with the Nasdaq and S&P 500 both up more than 1.5% each. Traditional asset markets were buoyed by optimism about mounting evidence that inflation is easing in the US without throwing the economy into a sharp recession and hope the Federal Reserve will cut its next rate hike to 25 basis points (bps) from the most recent increase.

Meanwhile, Signature Bank will not handle crypto transactions exceeding $100,000, according to a Bloomberg report that quoted a statement from Binance. In a statement to the outlet, the exchange said that Signature, which has been seeking to reduce its exposure to the cryptocurrency markets, “will no longer support any cryptocurrency exchange customer with purchases and amounts over $100,000 starting at February”.

Binance said this would be “the case for all Signature crypto clients” and noted that some users may “not be able to use traditional bank transfers to buy or sell cryptocurrencies to or from USD” in smaller amounts.

In recent weeks, Signature, which has ranked among the most cryptocurrency-friendly banks, and other financial services firms have reduced their exposure to cryptocurrencies, part of the growing fallout from the FTX exchange implosion. In December, Signature’s CEO said the bank would cut its cryptocurrency-related deposits by between $8 billion and $10 billion.

Despite his cautious outlook for the week, BitBull’s DiPasquale was more optimistic about “market risk appetite” with the cryptocurrency. “This is a positive sign for an eventual recovery, but we believe it could take longer and could materialize later this year,” she wrote.

Check out the performance of the main cryptocurrencies at 7:00:

Cryptocurrencies with the biggest gains in the last 24 hours:

Cryptocurrencies with the biggest losses in the last 24 hours:

Find out how cryptocurrency ETFs closed in the last trading session:

South African regulator requires risk warnings on cryptocurrency announcements

Advertisements involving cryptocurrencies in South Africa are expected to warn potential buyers that their capital may be at risk, according to new guidelines released Monday by the country’s Advertising Regulatory Board (ARB), a self-regulatory initiative in the advertising industry and of cryptocurrency public relations.

The Council is also looking to tighten rules for social media influencers promoting cryptocurrencies.

“This is a wonderful example of an industry seeing the damage that could be done in its name and positioning itself to self-regulate issues without being coerced by government,” said Gail Schimmel, executive director of the ARB.

Cryptocurrency listings “must expressly and clearly state that investing in cryptocurrencies may involve the loss of principal as the value is variable and can go up or down,” the updated guidance from the ARB says.

The Cardano network recovers quickly after a short outage

The Cardano (ADA) network experienced a short spell over the weekend following an outage that self-corrected within minutes, with no single root cause determined at this time.

Several developers reported the bug on GitHub, but claimed that all nodes restarted automatically. Block producing nodes are temporarily affected. Nodes are network stakeholders that maintain and process transactions on any blockchain and are very essential to the maintenance of any network.

The US claims $700 million in FTX’s Bankman-Fried-related assets

The US government wants to take control of nearly $700 million in assets seized earlier this month from former FTX CEO Sam Bankman-Fried, according to court documents released Friday.

Included in the estate are more than 55 million shares of Robinhood worth approximately $525 million. Purchased with borrowed money from Alameda, these shares have been at the center of a brawl between Bankman-Fried, FTX Group and BlockFi. Authorities are also moving to seize $171 million in cash from a number of bank accounts linked to the Bankman-Fried network of companies.

The government seized those assets and more in early January and is now seeking their confiscation, according to a detailed account filed Friday in the executive’s criminal case.

“We believe these assets are not owned by the estate” or subject to exemptions, meaning they should not be frozen like most FTX assets, awaiting liquidation, a government attorney previously told the judge in this case.

Related