Crypto

Bitcoin risks declining toward $70,000 as the Bank of Japan prepares a 25-basis-point rate hike on December 19, with analysts citing historical patterns of 20%+ BTC drops following previous BOJ rate increases. The post Bitcoin Price Prediction: Analysts Warn BTC Could Slide Toward $70K if Bank of Japan Hikes Rates on Dec. 19 appeared first on Cryptonews.

SEC warns investors on crypto custody risks while federal regulators approve tokenized Treasuries, grant national bank charters to five digital-asset firms, and shift toward integrating crypto into traditional finance. The post SEC Issues Crypto Custody Warning: Know the Risks Before You Store appeared first on Cryptonews.

HashKey’s IPO bid puts Hong Kong’s virtual asset regime on display, testing whether compliance-first crypto platforms can win investors. HashKey is aiming to become Hong Kong’s first fully crypto-native IPO by listing 240.57 million shares under the city’s virtual asset regulatory regime. The business extends beyond a spot exchange by combining trading, custody, institutional staking, asset management and tokenization into a single regulated platform. Revenue is growing, but the company is still incurring losses as it invests heavily in technology, compliance and market expansion. Read more

Bitcoin prices are stuck around the $90,000 support level, leaving analysts to question where it will head next. 

M and ZEC are in one corner, QNT and KAS are in the other.

10x Research’s Markus Thielen says Bitcoin’s four-year cycle still exists but is now driven by politics, liquidity and elections rather than the halving. Bitcoin’s long-debated four-year cycle is still playing out, but the forces behind it have shifted away from the halving toward politics and liquidity, according to Markus Thielen, head of research at 10x Research. Speaking on The Wolf Of All Streets Podcast, Thielen argued that the idea of the four-year cycle being “broken” misses the point. In his view, the cycle remains intact, but it is no longer dictated by Bitcoin (BTC)’s programmed supply cuts. Instead, it is increasingly shaped by US election timelines, central bank policy and the flow of capital into risk assets. Thielen pointed to historical market peaks in 2013, 2017 and 2021, all of which occurred in the fourth quarter. Those peaks, he said, align more closely with presidential election cycles and broader political uncertainty than with the timing of Bitcoin halvings, which have shifted throughou...

Meanwhile, the PI token continues to struggle at just over $0.20.

Bitcoin’s muted price action near $90,000 is being driven by covered call selling from long-term holders rather than weak spot demand. The post Covered Call Selling by Bitcoin Whales Is Weighing on Spot Prices, Analyst Says appeared first on Cryptonews.

The Bank of Japan is expected to increase its benchmark interest rates on Friday, a historically bearish signal for riskier assets like Bitcoin. Bitcoin (BTC) could face a continued correction toward the $70,000 level if the Bank of Japan (BoJ) proceeds with an expected interest-rate hike on Dec. 19, according to multiple macro-focused analysts. Key takeaways: BoJ tightening could pressure Bitcoin by draining global liquidity. Read more

Twenty One Capital’s NYSE listing showed how tightly markets now price Bitcoin-heavy firms, with investors refusing to pay much beyond the underlying BTC value. Twenty One Capital’s NYSE debut saw a nearly 20% drop, signaling cautious investor sentiment toward Bitcoin-heavy public listings. XXI traded close to its net asset value, suggesting the market did not assign a meaningful premium beyond the value of the firm’s Bitcoin holdings. The decline reflected broader market pressures, including Bitcoin volatility, fading enthusiasm for SPAC-backed listings and weakening mNAV premiums. Read more

US prosecutors expanded charges against Rodney Burton, a 56-year-old crypto promoter known as “Bitcoin Rodney,” over the $1.8 billion HyperFund scheme. The post Crypto Promoter “Bitcoin Rodney” Faces Up to 20 Years on New Charges appeared first on Cryptonews.

Michael Saylor explains why governments should consider Bitcoin-backed digital banks. It is time to examine the potential benefits and risks of Bitcoin banks. Michael Saylor, executive chair of Strategy, has suggested that national governments consider developing a novel type of financial system: regulated digital banking platforms backed by Bitcoin reserves and tokenized credit tools. These comments, shared during Saylor’s keynote at the Bitcoin MENA conference in Abu Dhabi, align with his broader view that digital assets could be integrated into mainstream financial frameworks. Read more

Robinhood has spent the past few years trying to outgrow its meme-stock reputation, and the clearest sign that it is thinking differently now sits far from Menlo Park. In early December, the company said it would buy PT Buana Capital Sekuritas, a small Indonesian brokerage, and PT Pedagang Aset Kripto, a licensed digital asset trader, […] The post Robinhood is constructing a “regional triangle” that unlocks the one thing US regulators won’t permit appeared first on CryptoSlate.

XRP traced support at the $2.00 line the last week of Nov. and first week of Dec. But Ripple bulls think it could have an addressable market as vast as Bitcoin’s.

Venezuela’s worsening economy and a weakening bolívar are driving wider stablecoin adoption, TRM Labs says. The post Stablecoin Use in Venezuela Set to Rise as Bolívar Weakens: TRM Labs appeared first on Cryptonews.

Standard Chartered and Coinbase are expanding their partnership to develop trading, custody and financing services aimed at institutional crypto clients. Standard Chartered and Coinbase have expanded their partnership to build crypto infrastructure for institutional clients. As part of the partnership, the duo will explore offerings across trading, prime services, custody, staking and lending, the British multinational bank announced on Friday. “We aim to explore how the two organisations can support secure, transparent and interoperable solutions that meet the highest standards of security and compliance,” Margaret Harwood-Jones, global head of financing and securities services at Standard Chartered, said. Read more

Spot XRP exchange-traded funds continued a streak of positive flows, with over $20.1 million recorded on Friday, marking 19 consecutive days of net inflows. Trader sentiment toward XRP has been shifting into bullish territory on social media this week, according to market intelligence platform Santiment, and at the same time, the streak of inflows into the token’s exchange-traded funds has continued. Retail traders are staying optimistic toward XRP (XRP) as it hovers around the $2 mark, with the week recording the seventh highest number of bullish comments for the year, Santiment said on Friday, citing data from its analytics platform Sanbase, which monitors social interest across cryptocurrency social channels, including Telegram, Discord, subreddits, and X. “XRP’s bulls and bears continue to battle, and the asset is hanging on to a $2.00 market value for now. Sentiment is showing bullishness across social media,” Santiment said. Read more

The crypto ecosystem in Venezuela is a product of ongoing economic collapse and international sanctions pressure, according to the TRM Labs team. Venezuelans are already heavily reliant on blockchain technology for banking after suffering through a decade of economic pressures; however, usage is likely to keep growing if conditions worsen in the South American country, blockchain intelligence firm TRM Labs says. As regional and geopolitical tensions continue to rise, driven in part by US-Venezuela tensions, causing macroeconomic instability and the bolívar’s continued devaluation, the TRM Labs team predicted in a report on Thursday that demand for stablecoins as both a store of value and a medium of exchange will rise. At the same time, regulatory ambiguity and continued uncertainty surrounding the country’s crypto regulator, SUNACRIP’s, authority and enforcement capacity, and eroding trust in traditional banking infrastructure could prolong the population’s dependence and drive more usage.  Read more

Despite traditional ETF investors willing to pay premiums to go long, Bitcoin natives selling covered calls have put a damper on a price rally. Long-term Bitcoin (BTC) whales selling covered calls, a strategy of selling call options that give the buyer the right but not an obligation to purchase an asset in the future at a predetermined price in exchange for the seller collecting a premium, is suppressing spot BTC prices, according to market analyst Jeff Park. Large, long-term BTC holders, also known as “whales” or “OGs,” introduce a disproportionate amount of sell-side pressure through this covered call strategy, partly because market makers are on the other side, buying the covered calls, Park said. This means that the market makers must hedge their exposure to buy the calls by selling spot BTC, forcing market prices down, despite strong demand from traditional exchange-traded fund (ETF) investors. Read more

Rinsch, best known for directing the 2013 film "47 Ronin," now faces sentencing after the federal jury's decision.