Crypto markets threw a nice head fake this week by rallying into resistance on a “positive” Consumer Price Index (CPI) report, before retracing the majority of those gains right after Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell took on a surprisingly hawkish tone during his post-rate-hike presser. The Fed hiked interest rates by 0.50%, which was well within the expectation of most market participants, but the eyebrow-raiser was the Federal Open Market Committee consensus that rates would need to reach the 5%–5.5%+ range in order to hopefully achieve the Fed’s 2% inflation target. This basically threw cold water on traders’ lusty dreams …

The total cryptocurrency market capitalization dropped 8.1% in the past two days after failing to break the $880 billion resistance on Dec. 14. The rejection did not invalidate the 4-week-long ascending channel, but a weekly close below $825 billion will confirm a shift to the lower band and reduce the support level to $790 billion. The overall investor sentiment toward the market remains bearish, and year-to-date losses amount to 66%. Despite this, Bitcoin (BTC) price dropped a mere 2% on the week, down to the $16,800 level at 17:00 UTC on Dec. 16. A far different scenario emerged for altcoins …

Bitcoin (BTC) looked set to ditch $17,000 after the Dec. 16 Wall Street open as United States equities continued to fall. Analyst: $240BNB "has nothing but air below it" Data from Cointelegraph Markets Pro and TradingView tracked new intraday lows of $16,743 for BTC/USD on Bitstamp. The pair had abruptly dived nearly 3% earlier in the day, compounding losses which immediately followed one-month highs. Ongoing concerns over largest global exchange Binance pervaded the mood, these coming despite the best efforts of CEO, Changpeng Zhao, to dispel what he called “FUD.” As Cointelegraph reported, longtime crypto traders were similarly skeptical of …

The Russian central bank is ready to consider allowing cryptocurrency use within the country but only as part of a legal experiment, governor Elvira Nabiullina said. “It’s possible to consider transactions through an authorized organization in the country as part of an experimental legal regime, but that would require a relevant law,” Nabiullina stated during a press conference of Bank of Russia on Dec. 16. The Bank of Russia’s only objection has always been that crypto cannot be used as a payment instrument, Nabiullina emphasized. She added that the central bank is also concerned about investor protection because the crypto …

As the FTX collapse highlighted the need for more transparency from centralized crypto exchanges, working with auditors has been the move by top crypto trading platforms to assure users that their assets are fine. However, two of the most prominent auditors have suddenly dropped their crypto auditing services, leaving exchanges hanging at a very crucial time. At the moment, the official website of the French auditing firm Mazars Group shows that its section, called Mazars Veritas, which is dedicated to crypto audits is now offline. The firm worked with several of the most prominent crypto exchanges including Binance, KuCoin and …

Bitcoin (BTC) fell below $17,000 on Dec. 16 as traders warned of overreaction to “FUD” involving exchange Binance and others. Binance "FUD" fuels bearish BTC moves Data from Cointelegraph Markets Pro and TradingView followed BTC/USD as it put in multi-day lows of $16,928 on Bitstamp. The pair retraced its entire run to one-month highs courtesy of the latest macroeconomic data and policy update from the United States. Amid ongoing concerns over the solvency of largest global exchange Binance, market sentiment showed what traders argued was a clear case of cold feet. The evidence, they suggested, simply did not stack up …

Crypto exchange Binance has seen its proof-of-reserve (PoR) audits removed from the auditor Mazars’ website. Mazars’ official website shows they fully discontinued Mazars Veritas, a section dedicated to cryptocurrency exchange audits. The tool was developed by Mazars in order to bring “trust and transparency to the digital asset sector,” using Silver Sixpence Merkle Tree Generating tool to complement PoR reports. The news comes amid Bloomberg reporting that Mazars stopped doing PoR for cryptocurrency companies. Some other auditing firms like FTX’s auditor Armanino have also reportedly stopped working with crypto exchanges like OKX and Gate.io. Mazars is widely known as the …

Bear markets are for building Bitcoin (BTC) companies. At least, that’s what the Legends of Lightning, a nine-week contest for competing Bitcoin businesses, would indicate. The tournament-come-hackathon ran more than 65 events worldwide as 73 projects battled it out to win 3 BTC ($50,000). The competition crowned Bitcoin startups Lightsats and AgriMint as winners of two separate competition tracks, Global Adoption and Building for Africa. Organized by Bitcoin startup Bolt Fun, the competition brought together 260 makers (builders, developers, startuppers and hackers) worldwide. Speaking to Cointelegraph via Google Meet, Johns Beharry, co-founder of Bolt Fun and founder and CEO of …

Amber has completed a new $300 million Series C funding round, led by blockchain-focused venture capital company Fenbushi Capital US, the firm announced on Twitter on Dec. 15. The new funding round comes as Amber has decided to pause its previous Series B funding and proceed with Series C instead due to FTX collapse. Prior to the failure of FTX, Amber was in process of completing an extension of its Series B at a $3 billion valuation. As previously reported, the company was planning to raise $100 million as part of the Series B funding, targeting to complete the round …

The incoming United States House Financial Services Committee chair Patrick McHenry wants the Treasury to delay the implementation of a section of the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act that deals with digital assets and tax collection. McHenry sent a letter on Dec. 14 to U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen with questions and concerns about the scope of Section 80603 of the Act. In the letter he requested clarification over the “poorly drafted” and potentially privacy-compromising Section that deals with the taxation of digital assets, scheduled to go into effect in 2023. He said the section requires the government to treat …

Bitcoin (BTC) miner Core Scientific’s stock has soared nearly 200% in the past four days, following the positive reception for a Dec. 14 financing proposal from a current creditor who is hoping the firm can avoid bankruptcy. Shares for the embattled miner were sitting just over 13 cents on Dec. 12, before climbing to nearly 40 cents as the market closed on Dec. 15 — representing a gain of 198%. According to financial media firm Marketbeat, traders acquired 6,572 call options on Dec. 15, 136% more than the average volume of 2,780, which indicates that many are bullish on the …

As the coldest days of the crypto winter set in, investors’ speculative interest in the crypto market has fallen to pre-2021 levels, impairing the chance of a substantial directional price move. However, there’s a possibility of a bear market rally akin to the July through August 2022 uptrend. The market enters a state of limbo The FTX implosion impacted over 5 million users globally and adversely affected numerous crypto companies that were exposed to it. The industry is currently in a recovery mode and Cumberland, a U.S.-based crypto market broker, recently echoed this narrative in a tweet. The firm noted …