Bitcoin Price: US$39,568.02 (-4.84%)
Ethereum Price: US$ 2,314.20 (-5.81%)
Alameda Research has dropped its lawsuit against Grayscale Investments, initially filed in March 2023, which alleged practices suppressing the value of FTX debtors’ assets. The suit sought injunctive relief against management fees violating trust agreements, totalling over $1.3 billion at the time of filing, and claimed Grayscale imposed a “self-imposed redemption ban.” Grayscale CEO Michael Sonnenshein, parent company Digital Currency Group (DCG), and its CEO, Barry Silbert, were named in the lawsuit. Silbert resigned from the Grayscale board in December. Grayscale deemed Alameda’s lawsuit without merit, and GBTC, now a spot ETF, experienced large outflows post-conversion, impacting its assets under management. CoinShares’ report reveals minor institutional Bitcoin investment product outflows of $24.7 million in the past week amid a broader market downturn, attributed to spot Bitcoin ETF-driven selling. Institutions withdrew nearly $21 million between January 11 and 19, with slowed outflows toward the end of the week. ETF product trade volume surged to $11.8 billion, representing 63% of all Bitcoin volumes on trusted exchanges, indicating dominance in trading activity. Despite outflows from digital asset investment products, newer issuers saw inflows, and investors considered price weakness an opportunity to add to short-Bitcoin investment products. The United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) fell victim to a “SIM swap” attack, leading to a false X post on January 9 stating that spot Bitcoin exchange-traded funds (ETFs) were approved. The SEC confirmed the unauthorised party obtained control of the SEC cell phone number in a SIM swap attack two days after the incident, allowing them to reset the password for the @SECGov account. The SEC is investigating the attack and revealed that six months prior, a staff member removed multifactor authentication due to account access issues, restoring it after the January 9 incident.
A new malware targeting macOS users has been discovered by Kaspersky Labs, spreading through pirated software and replacing legitimate Bitcoin and Exodus wallets with infected versions. The trojan proxies compromise cracked legitimate apps downloaded from unauthorised sources, gaining access to users’ security passwords and private keys when attempting to open compromised crypto wallets. The malware, still in development for a new campaign, targets macOS versions 13.6 and above. Users are advised to use trusted websites, keep their operating systems updated, and utilise security solutions to avoid falling victim to this malware. In other news, the FTX estate, linked to the failed crypto exchange FTX and hedge fund Alameda Research, has reportedly sold over two-thirds of its Grayscale Bitcoin Trust (GBTC) shares, potentially raising at least $600 million. The sale occurred after the conversion of GBTC into a spot ETF on January 11, with Alameda Research previously suing Grayscale for alleged exorbitant fees. Additionally, the Concentric liquidity manager app faced exploitation on Arbitrum, with an attacker using a social engineering attack to compromise the private key for the protocol’s deployer account. The attacker then upgraded vaults, minted new LP tokens, and drained vault assets, resulting in a loss of over $1.8 million. The incident is under investigation, and users are advised to revoke approvals from all vault addresses associated with Concentric.
Crypto losses on BNB Chain experienced a significant decline in 2023, dropping by 85%, according to a report by AvengerDAO, involving security firms CertiK, Hashdit, Ancilia, and Salus. The losses on the BNB Chain have been increasing since 2020, reaching a peak in 2022 with over $1.1 billion in stolen crypto assets. However, in 2023, the losses decreased to $161 million, with a notable decrease in both hacks and scams in terms of funds stolen. The report attributes the reduction in losses to quick alerts generated by AvengerDAO, warning the community of potential bad actors. In other news, a report from Crypto.com reveals that the global cryptocurrency user base surpassed half a billion by the end of 2023, estimating a 34% increase in cryptocurrency users during the year, reaching 580 million people. The report notes increased ownership of Ether and Bitcoin and highlights the growth in crypto adoption despite macroeconomic challenges. Additionally, Ethereum’s Dencun upgrade, set to significantly lower gas fees and improve transaction speeds for layer-2 rollups, has been activated on the Goerli testnet. The upgrade includes Ethereum Improvement Proposals (EIPs), with particular attention to EIP-4844, enabling proto-danksharding to reduce L2 transaction fees. Successful deployment on testnets Sepolia and Holesky is awaited before potential implementation on the Ethereum mainnet. Lastly, Dogecoin experienced a 12.8% increase, reaching a seven-day high following the creation of the “XPayments” account on X (formerly Twitter), which gained over 100,000 followers in a day. While X has not confirmed the payment functions it plans to offer, traders speculated that Dogecoin might be included, given Elon Musk’s occasional mention of DOGE on the platform. Musk, the owner of X, has previously hinted at integrating DOGE into the platform, contributing to DOGE’s price spikes.
Source: https://cointelegraph.com
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