Kategorie: Crypto News

The court’s verdict makes use of virtual assets criminal and stipulates heavy prison sentences and penalties.

The Supreme People’s Court, the apex court in China, on Thursday ruled that transacting virtual assets is “illegal fundraising.”

The Supreme Court ruling comes with amendments to previous designations of various articles regarding the topic of crypto transactions.

In one of the amendments, item 8 of Article 2 encompasses “illegal fundraising by way of online lending, investment in shares, [and] virtual currency transactions,” the court ruled.

The court’s decision gives authorities the power to prosecute suspects and apply necessary penalties.

According to the court, those suspected to have engaged in illegal fundraising face prosecution as stipulated under Article 176 of the country’s criminal law. Persons guilty of illegally handling large amounts of money face three to ten years in prison and a fine of between RMB 50,000 and RMB 500,000 (($7,900-$79,000).

Suspects arrested on charges involving smaller amounts face jail terms of up to three years. Additional fines of between 20,000 and 200,000 RMB (roughly ($3,160 to $31,600).

According to details in the ruling, the new amendments take effect on 1st March this year.

China banned crypto trading and mining in 2021, doing so in a crackdown that reinforced what the country’s regulators had already put in place in previous years.

The post China’s Supreme Court declares crypto transactions as ‘illegal fundraising’ appeared first on Coin Journal.

At 4am local time this morning, Russian president Vladimir Putin announced a military operation against Ukraine, live on national TV. He claimed the action was necessary to “defend” the Russian-speaking people living in the country. This effectively torpedoed Bitcoin.

Here’s what 3 notable crypto personalities had to say.

Buterin: Ethereum is neutral, but I’m not

Ethereum cofounder Vitalik Buterin condemned the decision on Twitter in his native Russian language:

Very upset by Putin’s decision to abandon the possibility of a peaceful solution to the dispute with Ukraine and go to war instead. Russia’s invasion of Ukraine is a crime against both the Ukrainian and Russian people.

SBF: Do something nice for someone

Sam Bankman-Fried, the CEO of crypto exchange FTX, also took to Twitter. He was far less succinct than Buterin, offering a Bitcoin price prediction against the backdrop of war:

In the last day, the S&P500 is down about 4%, and BTC is down about 8%. There are 2 types of people in the world: fundamental investors and algorithm followers. Fundamental investors look at the situation and are uncertain which direction BTC/USD should move.

Algorithm followers consult the data.  Historically, what’s the trend? Over the last year, there’s been a really high correlation between crypto and equities. The main reason is monetary policy: moves in expectations of inflation and interest rates change in USD and other fiat currencies.

The algorithms look at the data, and decide based on that: BTC should be 80% correlated to the S&P500, with a beta of 4 (i.e. if S&P500 moves 1%, BTC moves 4%).

Then war happens.

Fundamental investors are neutral, but algorithmic investors see the S&P500 go down 4%, and so expect BTC to go down 4*4%=16% based on historical studies.

Fundamental investors are buying and algorithmic investors are selling; BTC ends up halfway in between, down 8% on the day, half of the 16% that the algorithmic investors predict. At which point their model updates a bit–BTC went down less than the 4x they predicted–and a cycle begins.

He then switches gears:

Maybe the real effect here is liquidity. If you’re risk averse, maybe you’re selling whatever you have right now, because who knows what’ll happen. And markets are illiquid right now–who’s buying volatile assets?

He admits he has no idea what will happen next, concluding:

Do something nice for someone. The world could use it right about now.

Nick Schteringard: This man is out of his head

Russian crypto news outlets with staff in Ukraine have felt the impact. Nick Schteringard, chief editor of Russian-language crypto news outlet ForkLog, said the lives of several key members of the team were at risk. He was adamant:

It’s absolutely clear that this man [Putin] is out of his head and has to be stopped.

Schteringard added, perplexed:

I don’t quite understand people who are now taking to Twitter to post about how the war brings an opportunity to buy the dip. What Bitcoin, what stocks, just wake up, the war is at your doors!

The post 3 notable crypto personalities commenting on war appeared first on Coin Journal.

Crypto assets were trending downward on Wednesday night, but when Russia began attacking Ukraine on Thursday morning, they took a dive even further.

US stocks went into freefall yesterday as tensions in Ukraine intensified. The SPX500 (-2.25%), DJ30 (-1.69%) and NASDAQ100 (-3.1%) all finished heavily in the red as investors fled for safe-haven assets.

The BEA will publicize preliminary GDP data for the fourth quarter of 2021 at 13:30 GMT, which may generate volatility in the markets.

Oil surged past $97 this morning as Russia began attacking Ukraine.

Top cryptos

Most coins in the top 20 lost around a tenth of their value on average. Five of the top 10 cryptos dropped by double digits over the past 24 hours: Cardano more than 15%, Avalanche 14%, Ethereum and BNB 12%, and XRP more than 11%.

Bitcoin was trading under $35,000 at time of writing, down more than 8% in the past day. Outside the top 10, Dogecoin, Polkadot, and Polygon lost more than 15%.

Top movers

The situation looks even worse outside the top 20, where the minimal loss suffered by a cryptocurrency is around 8%. Chainlink is down by more than 17% and Fantom, The Graph, Gala, and Elrond each lost 18%.

VeChain and AAVE have lost almost 17%. Theta Network, Harmony, Enjin Coin, Curve DAO Token, and Loopring each shed 19% of their value on news that Putin declared war on Ukraine.

PancakeSwap’s losses are just under 18%. Kadena has lost between 19-20% and Mina is down 20%. The biggest loser is Convex Finance, which shed almost a quarter of its value.

Trending

Unifty provides Contracts-as-a-Service solutions to enable digital artists and collectible issuers to create their own contracts for different purposes without coding knowledge. The token added 82% to its value in the last 24 hours.

Amid the gloom and doom, ACCEL is rallying on news of a Binance listing scheduled for today. The token has gained more than 18% in the last 24 hours. It is a multi-utility asset that claims to bring several real-world utilities to the crypto space.

  

The post Market highlights February 24: Five of the top 10 cryptos dropped by double digits appeared first on Coin Journal.