Crypto Market as Prices of BTC and Other Crypto Recovers
The crypto market cap is now hovering at $2.3T after a week-long of BTC (bitcoin) and leading crypto-assets on a downward trend. The most dominant cryptocurrency has barely reached the $50K mark with more than a week. On Dec. 23, BTC (bitcoin) surpassed the $50K mark making a huge impact in the entire crypto market. Prices of other cryptocurrencies like ETH (ethereum), BNB (Binance Coin), SOL (Solana), XRP (Ripple), and LUNA (Terra) also posted remarkable gains.
BTC (bitcoin) is down by 0.47% and ETH (ethereum) by 0.11% in a 24-hr chart but has a slight effect so far on the movement of other cryptocurrencies. ETH killer SOL (Solana) posted a 0.17% gain despite the slide in the price of Bitcoin along with other leading digital assets.
But all cryptocurrencies so far recorded from average to huge gains in a week-long period which signaled the market’s strong performance. LUNA (Terra) despite being down by 1.71% has posted a 45.87% increase in a week-long period. On Dec. 24, it breached the $100 mark and recorded its newest all-time high with its price at $101.02.
Crypto enthusiast has strongly predicted that the price of BTC (bitcoin) will soon breach the $100K before 2021 ends. But with the current price swings, this remains to be seen.
Missing Bitcoins From Salvadorans Chivo Wallets
The Bitcoin that was given as airdrop to Salvadorans through Chivo wallet is reportedly missing.
In June, President Nayib Bukele has announced on Twitter that the government will be giving away $30 worth of bitcoin to all illegible residents who will download the Chivo wallet.
— Nayib Bukele (@nayibbukele) June 25, 2021
The announcement has even resulted in a 5% spike in the price of BTC (bitcoin). In a report by Forbes, Bukele stated that there were 3 million Salvadorans or 46 percent of the country’s population have downloaded the Chivo wallet.
But in a recent report by The New Scientist, a Twitter user under the pseudonym El Comisonado revealed that bitcoins from at least a hundred wallets have vanished. But the government has not replied as to what has happened to the missing bitcoins as stated by El Comisonado to the media outlet.
“The government has not responded, nor does it acknowledge the errors.”
He further adds:
“It’s one of the things people are demanding, that they respond to their complaints. Many have waited several months for a response to get the money back.”
The bitcoin airdrop for Salvadorans on Chivo wallet failed due to the system’s inability to check new users’ photos and relied only on their national identity card number and date of birth. This has resulted in a massive fraud with fictitious users signing up just for the bonus.
The Bitcoin Law has been heavily opposed by most Salvadorans. Large anti-bitcoin protests were organized despite the ban due to COVID 19 pandemic. But Bukele remains unfazed and on Nov. 20 during the Bitcoin and Blockchain Conference, he announced his government’s plan to create Bitcoin City which will be inspired by ancient Greeks. But Bukele’s detractors stated that this is yet another distraction from Bukele’s economic woes.
In October, Etherem founder Vitalik Buterin has highly criticized El Salvador’s Bitcoin policy stating that it is opposed to the crypto essential values of openness and freedom.
He further states:
“Everyone who blindly supports him (hint: Bitcoin maximalists) should be ashamed.”
Monero Mining Malware Targets Spider-Man Movie Pirate Copy Downloads
The Monero mining malware is now targetting users who download a pirated copy of the movie ‘Spider-Man: No Way Home’.
The infected file “spiderman_net_putidomoi.torrent.exe” is believed to have originated from a Russian torrenting website as stated by cybersecurity firm ReasonLabs. When downloaded, the users’ computer then gets infected and becomes mining hardware for XMR (Monero) coins.
In a tweet, Reason Labs has warned users of this newest cryptojacking scheme.
We identified a Monero miner attached to a torrent download of 'Spider-Man: No Way Home.'
Read all about it in ZDNet 👇🏼 #cryptojacking #malware #ReasonLabshttps://t.co/2eRUy0zVdp
— ReasonLabs (@Reasonsecurity) December 23, 2021
Earlier this month, network safety firm Sophos discovered another variety of the Tor2Mine infection, a more forceful Monero crypto-digger than earlier forms. The Monero malware has reportedly attempted to attack corporate networks but thanks to Sophos for the early detection.
Cryptojacking involving XMR (Monero) has recently been on the rise due to its privacy features making it hard to track.
US Senator to Propose New Regulatory Body for Crypto
Pro-bitcoin Senator Cynthia Lummis plans to propose new crypto regulation according to a report by Bloomberg. The proposed law will cover everything about cryptocurrencies including taxation and consumer protection.
The legislation is also aimed at creating a new regulatory body that will handle all matters concerning cryptocurrencies with joint coordination with the Securities and Exchange Commission and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission.
Sen. Lummis has expressed her optimism on the matter as stated in a report from Decrypt.
“I’m optimistic that we’ll eventually reach an agreement on a legal framework for digital assets that resolves many of the longstanding issues, including regulatory jurisdiction, market integrity, self-regulatory organizations and stablecoins.”
If passed into law, this will put an end to the issue of how cryptocurrencies should be regulated and who will oversee the regulation.
