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The crypto winter is over and Bitcoin could hit $100,000 in 2024, according to Standard Chartered. 

“We see potential for Bitcoin (BTC) to reach the $100,000 level by end-2024, as we believe the much-touted ‘crypto winter’ is finally over,” Geoff Kendrick, head of crypto and FX research at the bank, said in a note Monday.

The recent U.S. banking crisis spurned a price rally in bitcoin and re-established its core use case “as a decentralized, trustless and scarce digital asset,” the bank said. It also pointed to the end of the Fed’s interest rate hikes, the next halving of bitcoin, and regulatory benefits. 

The price of bitcoin, while down from recent highs last week, is still hovering around $27,000. That’s up from under $17,000 at the start of the year. 

“Troubles faced by stablecoins (competing digital assets) have also helped bitcoin to regain its reputation as ‘digital gold’,” analysts wrote, noting that Circle’s USDC depegged following the revelation it had $3.3 billion held at Silicon Vally Bank. 

A colleague of Kendrick’s at Standard Chartered predicted the price of bitcoin could fall to $5,000 in December. Eric Robertsen, global head of research and strategy, said at the time that gold would return to being the number-one safe haven it once was.

Bitcoin’s journey to $100,000

Bitcoin benefits from its status as a “safe haven,” and it has a perceived relative store of value and a means of remittance, all of which means the bank expects bitcoin’s dominance to continue to rise. Its dominance is its market cap relative to the market cap of the rest of the crypto market. 

Risk assets in general should see improved fortunes with the U.S. Federal Reserve nearing the end of its interest rate hike cycle, according to Standard Chartered. Bitcoin can trade higher during difficult periods for risk assets, however, its increasing correlation to the Nasdaq at present means it should be better if risk assets improve more broadly.

Bitcoin halving’s impact on price

The next bitcoin halving — where the reward for mining a new block of bitcoin is halved — should also improve price outcomes, as evidenced by increases following the previous halvings. The next halving is estimated to happen around the end of March 2024, according to 21Shares’ Dune dashboard.  

“This should add a cyclical tailwind to the structural positives at play,” Kendrick wrote, adding that “even further out, regulatory developments should provide a tailwind for bitcoin.”

The European Union’s Markets in Crypto Assets (MiCA) regulation, which passed last week through European Parliament last week, “could have constructive implications for investor interest and volatility,” he argues. The U.S. and Britain should follow suit, at least according to Kendrick.

© 2023 The Block Crypto, Inc. All Rights Reserved. This article is provided for informational purposes only. It is not offered or intended to be used as legal, tax, investment, financial, or other advice.

Sam Bankman-Fried’s parent will have their cellphones strictly monitored while the disgraced former FTX chief is under house arrest in their  California home after a judge approved the new rules. 

A consultant will review keystroke logs and screenshots of Joseph Bankman and Barbara Fried’s cell phones at least three times per week under the new court order.

Judge Lewis Kaplan approved a proposal on Saturday to install monitoring software on the mobile phones of Joseph Bankman and Barbara Fried that will keep close watch over their internet browsing, apps and messages. 

“We believe these restrictions are sufficient to prevent Mr. Bankman-Fried from using the Parents’ Phones to circumvent his bail conditions,” Bankman-Fried’s lawyers wrote in a letter to the judge.

Bankman-Fried, the former FTX CEO, has pleaded not guilty to criminal charges tied to his role at the defunct crypto exchange and its sibling crypto trading firm, Alameda Research.

He is awaiting an October trial, while three other FTX executives have pleaded guilty to criminal charges. 

Strict phone monitoring of Bankman-Fried’s parents

The new phone restrictions come after lawyers struggled to carry out an earlier court order tied to a dispute over Bankman-Fried’s bail.

Prosecutors sought tighter restrictions after Bankman-Fried allegedly contacted a witness in his criminal case using an encrypted app and used a virtual private network, which obscures a user’s internet activity.

As part of Bankman-Fried’s new bail terms, the former FTX boss recently traded in his smartphone for a model that can’t access the internet and a laptop computer for a new version that is outfitted with monitoring software and curbs his internet use.

The U.S. District Court for the Souther District of New York initially ordered that monitoring software on Bankman-Fried’s parents’ phones should photograph the user every five minutes to ensure that the former FTX boss is not using their devices.

“The monitoring software does not, in fact, have this capability,” Bankman-Fried’s lawyers wrote in a court filing. 

A list of apps

Under the new rules, parents Bankman and Fried will give lawyers and the government a list of apps they use on their cellphones. The monitoring software will screenshot any activity on the app store and preserve a record if any new apps are downloaded to their phones.

The software will “preserve a record and/or take screenshots” of any internet browsing, along with any iMessages, voice calls and FaceTime calls sent or received by their phones. A technical consultant will review the keystroke logs and screenshots at least three times a week to ensure “no unauthorized activity is taking place” on the parents’ phones. 

Bankman and Fried are also barred from using ephemeral messaging apps like Signal, after their son was accused of using Signal to contact a potential witness.

A spokesperson for Bankman-Fried declined to comment. 

© 2023 The Block Crypto, Inc. All Rights Reserved. This article is provided for informational purposes only. It is not offered or intended to be used as legal, tax, investment, financial, or other advice.

Net outflows totaled $30 million.

The ECB wants the CBDC to be universally accepted, and usable by those without bank accounts, the central banker said

Crypto exchange Bybit will require know-your-customer checks on all its services starting next month.

“Starting from 8 May, 2023, Identity Verification of at least Lv.1 will be mandatory for all Bybit products and services,” the company said in a Monday announcement. “Existing users who have not completed Identity Verification as of 8 May, 2023 will only be allowed to close existing open positions or orders, return loans, or withdraw.”

Word of the policy shift appeared to circulate on social media in recent days. Bybit itself suggested such a move was possible in December, when it rolled out KYC requirements for peer-to-peer trading and some NFT services. The exchange said at the time that it “may further expand KYC requirements in the near future.”

Bybit’s KYC shift

Bybit didn’t offer an explanation for the policy shift, but regulators worldwide have more closely scrutinized crypto exchanges in recent months, particularly in the U.S. 

The exchange is one of a number of crypto firms headquartered in Dubai. Bybit moved its headquarters from Singapore to Dubai last year, as Bloomberg previously reported. 

© 2023 The Block Crypto, Inc. All Rights Reserved. This article is provided for informational purposes only. It is not offered or intended to be used as legal, tax, investment, financial, or other advice.

Bitcoin outflows of $53 million helped snap a six-week run of inflows to digital asset investment products, according to CoinShares. 

The outflows began after bitcoin reached the $30,000 price plateau, which CoinShares suggests indicates that the most recent sell-off was “a result of profit-taking, particularly in the absence of any macro-economic triggers.”

The previous four weeks had seen inflows of $310 million for the world’s largest cryptocurrency by market cap.

Overall outflows for last week were $30 million as the price of bitcoin fell about 10%. 

Ethereum’s Shapella upgrade seemed to show promise to investors who piled $17 million into related assets. The inflows suggest “increasing confidence” in the recent changes to the blockchain. 

Aside from the big two cryptocurrencies, Polygon saw another week of inflows with an additional $1 million. 

© 2023 The Block Crypto, Inc. All Rights Reserved. This article is provided for informational purposes only. It is not offered or intended to be used as legal, tax, investment, financial, or other advice.

The U.S. Treasury Department’s sanctions watchdog banned three North Korean individuals for supporting the Lazarus Group, a North Korean hacking team known for crypto thefts.

The report noted that the crypto winter is finally over and bitcoin halving is set to be a positive catalyst for the price.

Binance is rebranding its Ethereum staking product and introducing a liquid staking token less than two weeks after Ethereum’s Shapella upgrade enabled staking withdrawals.

The token, called Wrapped Beacon ETH (WBETH), will allow Binance users to participate in decentralized finance protocols off the exchange. Users will continue to acquire Ethereum staking rewards while doing so. From Thursday, users can wrap Beacon ETH (BETH) tokens to WBETH and unwrap WBETH to BETH tokens on the exchange’s Ethereum staking page. There will be zero fees for the wrapping and unwrapping of these tokens.

The initial conversion is one-to-one, but this is subject to change since the value of WBETH will increase over time by the daily APR on Ethereum Staking, the announcement noted. 

Liquid staking tokens allow holders to stake ether and receive a derivative token that represents the locked cryptocurrency. This derivative can then be used across various crypto markets, effectively making the locked coins liquid. 

Lido dominates staking

The staking market is heavily dominated by Lido, which holds around 31% of the market share, according to data aggregated by Hildebert Moulie, a data scientist at Dragonfly Capital. Lido Finance’s total value locked (TVL) surpassed 6 million ether (ETH), equivalent to over $12 billion, days after the Shapella upgrade on Ethereum.

Bybit’s Head of Crypto Insights, Charmyn Ho, told The Block last week that liquid staking is “poised to benefit the most from the Ethereum Shapella upgrade. Liquid staked tokens offer greater capital efficiency and flexibility compared to staked tokens, as traders can earn staking rewards while retaining the ability to move their funds freely.”

© 2023 The Block Crypto, Inc. All Rights Reserved. This article is provided for informational purposes only. It is not offered or intended to be used as legal, tax, investment, financial, or other advice.

A dormant bitcoin whale address, which hasn’t been active for 12 years, transferred nearly $11 million in bitcoin

The address in question sent 400 bitcoins in batches of 100 to another address with a cumulative U.S. dollar value of $10.9 million. The transfer transaction fee came to 19 satoshis, or $5.22, according to on-chain data.

The wallet had been dormant since 2011, when it added 900 and then 100 bitcoin worth around $4,300 and $480 at the time, respectively, according to on-chain data via BitInfoCharts.

Today’s awoken whale follows a recent trend of long-dormant wallets springing back to life.

Wake up call

On Thurday, a bitcoin whale address that had been dormant for over nine years transferred 2,071.5 BTC ($60.7 million) out. A day later, another whale awoke after a decade of inactivity, transferring 279 bitcoins — worth $7.8 million — to three fresh addresses.

The wake-up isn’t limited to Bitcoin, a long-dormant Ethereum address that participated in the blockchain’s initial coin offering, or ICO, awoke after over seven years today. The wallet transferred one ether to a new address.

© 2023 The Block Crypto, Inc. All Rights Reserved. This article is provided for informational purposes only. It is not offered or intended to be used as legal, tax, investment, financial, or other advice.