The main thing on the cryptocurrency market
Bitwise forecasts Bitcoin growth to $100,000 by the end of the year
By the end of 2024, the price of the first cryptocurrency will rise to $100,000. This forecast was given by Bitwise Investment Director Matt Hougan, The Block reports.
The expert is convinced of the short-term influence of these factors. The negative effect was reinforced by seasonally low liquidity, he added.
Hougan identified five “tailwinds” that, in his opinion, will lead to the realization of such expectations:
- inflows into the Bitcoin spot – ETF; halving of the first cryptocurrency; expected launch of spot Ethereum ETFs; changes in the political situation in the United States; prospect of a Fed rate cut.
Bitwise's chief investment officer expressed confidence that BTC ETF inflows will continue “by billions of dollars” beyond the $15 billion currently registered since the products were launched.
He cited approvals from major wealth management platforms, including Morgan Stanley and Wells Fargo, as a driver.
Hougan estimated the potential inflow of funds into ETH ETFs at $15 billion.
At the time of writing, the price of Bitcoin is around $57,100.
49% of cryptocurrency owners expect a market recovery – CoinGecko
49.3% of more than 2,500 users who trade or own cryptocurrencies said they are bullish on the crypto market and predict strong growth in the near term. This is evidenced by data from a CoinGeco survey.
Another 25.2% of survey participants said they expect a further fall in the rate of crypto assets. At the same time, strong bearish sentiment prevails among 11.8% of respondents.
25.5% of traders took a neutral position and did not take any action. This may reflect uncertainty among participants or indicate that they expect future developments, the report says.
The experts concluded that of the four categories of participants, long-term investors were the most optimistic at 54%. But the sentiments of traders are divided – 39% of respondents expect cryptocurrencies to grow, and 33.5% to fall.
“This indicates that traders with short-term positions tend to adjust their market sentiment in line with price action, while investors are more focused on the longer-term potential of the cryptocurrency market,” analysts said.
SEC terminated BUSD investigation
The issuer of Binance's BUSD stablecoin, Paxos, received a notice from the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) that it had no plans for enforcement action.
In February 2023, NYDFS initiated an investigation into the company. The regulator later ordered Paxos to stop issuing BUSD.
The SEC also announced its readiness to sue the latter. The Commission’s report stated that the digital asset is a security, with which the company “strongly disagreed.”
In June 2023, the regulator filed 13-count claims against Binance and its founder Changpeng Zhao. One of them concerned allegations of an unregistered BUSD offering.
Paxos continued to support operations for the redemption and conversion of the stablecoin until February 2024.
According to CoinGecko, BUSD worth $69 million remains in circulation. Over the last 24 hours, the asset's turnover amounted to $992,000.
In June 2024, Judge Amy Berman Jackson partially dismissed the SEC's lawsuit against Binance. In particular, it granted the exchange's request to remove the claims of the BUSD proposal.
In April, a bill on payment stablecoins was submitted to the Senate for consideration.
The document prohibits unsecured algorithmic “stable coins” and introduces a mechanism to combat money laundering. It obliges issuing firms to create reserves of cash and cash equivalents in relation to each other to secure tokens.
Experts have discovered a fraudulent online market with a turnover of $11 billion in cryptocurrencies
Widely used by scammers from The Southeast Asian online marketplace Huione Guarantee conducted transactions in cryptocurrencies worth at least $11 billion, Elliptic researchers found.
The platform is part of the Huione Group conglomerate, owned by Cambodia's ruling Hong family. It was created in 2021 as a marketplace for legal goods such as real estate or cars. However, most of the offerings on the marketplace are aimed at cyber fraud operators.
Huione Guarantee is a Chinese-language ecosystem consisting of thousands of messaging channels operated by individual merchants. The largest category of the latter offers services for transfer and money laundering.
Another category of merchants offers goods and services to implement “pig processing” schemes, where the victim is lured into investing cryptocurrency, which is then stolen. This includes the creation of fraudulent websites, telecommunications equipment, personal data to find future victims and AI software to create deepfakes.
Scam complexes are widely used for these scams in the region, especially common in Myanmar, Laos and Cambodia. They usually resemble prisons, where workers are in the position of slaves.
Elliptic experts found advertisements on Huione Guarantee for products used by the owners of such enterprises to keep employees obedient. This includes tear gas, electric batons and electronic bracelets that deliver electric shocks when leaving a certain area.
The analysis showed that more than $11 billion has been received into the cryptocurrency wallets of the marketplace and merchants since 2021. Experts believe that this amount is inconclusive, and most of the funds are associated with illegal activities.
- Cryptocurrency
