The cryptocurrency market witnessed important developments over the past week. Particularly, the surge in the crypto market led by Bitcoin brought joy to many investors, while the price increases allowed for positive developments to dominate the headlines. So, what were the standout news items from last week? Let’s take a look.
Yuga Labs Makes a Major Move
Yuga Labs’ recent acquisition of NFT company PROOF went smoothly, but trading activities prior to the announcement upset some investors. On February 16th, Yuga announced the acquisition of PROOF and its NFT collections Moonbirds, Oddities, Mythics, and Grails for an undisclosed sum. PROOF’s assets, intellectual property, and team will join Yuga, and PROOF’s founder and CEO Kevin Rose will become an advisor to Yuga.
However, some observers noticed a spike in the daily trading volume of Moonbirds two days before the announcement, with the volume quadrupling to about $1.3 million the day before. According to DappRadar, this figure climbed to $1.5 million on February 15th, bringing the collection’s base price along with it.
FTX Saga Continues
FTX investors claim that the Bahamian Deltec Bank provided a secret credit line to FTX’s sibling company Alameda Research to purchase Tether, and helped transfer FTX’s customer funds to Alameda. A series of messages, documents, and statements belonging to former Alameda Research head Caroline Ellison were published in a nearly 160-page file in the Florida District Court on February 16th.
The lawsuit alleges that since 2021, Deltec provided Alameda with a three-day short-term credit limit, sometimes exceeding $2 billion, allowing the trading company to purchase USDT and profit when the stablecoin traded slightly above one dollar.
Notable Prediction Regarding Bitcoin Halving
Blockware Solutions suggests that the price of Bitcoin mining hardware could increase after the blockchain’s mining rewards are halved in April, urging miners to embrace rather than fear the halving.
In a report dated February 16th, the mining hardware company stated that the most profitable strategy in the last market cycle was to enter the Bitcoin mining market around the time of halving, predicting it will likely be the same this time.
Referring to research conducted in January 2023, Blockware pointed out that mining equipment prices are highly correlated with the price of Bitcoin. During the 2021 bull cycle, they found that for every 1% increase in Bitcoin’s price, the popular Bitmain S19 miner’s price would increase by 0.96%.
