Bitcoin Price Outlook for February

February has been a rollercoaster ride for cryptocurrency traders, with market volatility leading to high levels of price uncertainty. Following a strong start to the month, bitcoin prices have since plunged, resulting in a current bear run. However, with just over two weeks left of this short month, what else could be in store for speculators?

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📣 UNHCR Launches Blockchain Payment Solution to Support Ukrainians Displaced by War

The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) recently said it has launched a blockchain payment solution for digital cash distribution to internally displaced persons (IDPs) in Ukraine. According to the agency, the use of the blockchain-based cash.

The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) and the Stellar Development Foundation (SDF), an organization supporting the growth of the Stellar blockchain, announced on Dec. 15 the launch of a “blockchain payment solution for digital cash distribution to internally displaced persons (IDPs) and other war-affected people in Ukraine.”


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​​Audit firm Mazars to verify KuCoin’s proof of reserves.

Mazars, the former accounting firm for Donald Trump’s companies, was hired recently to audit Binance’s PoR.

Crypto exchange KuCoin hired the international accounting firm Mazars for a third-party audit of its proof of reserves (PoR).

According to an announcement on Dec. 5, the verification will provide the exchange customers additional transparency and reporting on whether their in-scope assets are collateralized, along with details on main, trade, margin, robot and contract accounts for Bitcoin (BTC) and Ether (ETH), as well as for the stablecoins Tether and USD Coin.

The report should be available on KuCoin’s official website within a few weeks. CEO of KuCoin Johnny Lyu said the move is the next step in the exchange efforts to provide transparency on users’ funds. Wiehann Olivier, partner at Kucoin, also noted:

“After recent events, there is a dire need in the industry for additional transparency, and we are confident that Mazars’ PoR service offering to KuCoin and other international cryptocurrency exchanges will aid in building trust through transparency.”

As reported by Cointelegraph, Mazars was also appointed as an official auditor to conduct “third party financial verification” in Binance’s PoR on Nov. 30. Binance’s publicly shared Bitcoin information is already being reviewed.

Headquartered in Paris, the international accounting firm previously worked for former United States President Donald Trump’s company. According to reports, the firm cut ties with Trump and his family in 2022.

KuCoin and Binance are among the six crypto firms requested to provide information on consumer protection by the United States Senator Ron Wyden by Dec. 12.

Wyden requested Binance, Coinbase, Bitfinex, Gemini, Kraken and KuCoin information on subsidiary companies, safeguards of consumer assets, use of customer data, and guards against market manipulation. The senator argued that crypto users with funds in FTX had “no such protections” as those offered by banks or registered brokers under the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation or Securities Investor Protection Corporation.

Bit2Me Debit Card Launch Gives Users up to 9% Cashback on All Purchases


Bit2Me, the biggest Spanish exchange, and the first company to be recognized as a virtual service provider by the Bank of Spain has just launched a long-awaited debit card. The Bit2Me debit card works across the entire Mastercard network, enabling both crypto-stablecoin payments across more than 90 million global businesses and up to 9% cash back on all payments.

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​Banking Giant HSBC Files Trademarks for a Wide Range of Digital Currency and Metaverse Products

Banking giant HSBC has filed trademark applications with the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) for a wide range of digital currency products and services, including those related to the metaverse and non-fungible tokens (NFTs).

HSBC has filed two crypto-related trademark applications for its name and logo with the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO). Mike Kondoudis, a USPTO-licensed trademark attorney, noted in a tweet Friday that HSBC’s trademark applications indicate the bank’s plans for a number of digital products and services, including those related to the exchange and transfer of virtual currencies.

HSBC’s crypto-related trademark applications were filed on Dec. 15; their serial numbers are 97718803 and 97718583. The bank described a wide range of products and services in its applications, including sending, receiving, converting, and storing digital currencies.

The trademark applications also detail several metaverse-related products and services, such as “facilitating secure payment transactions by electronic means in the metaverse,” “providing banking services in the metaverse,” and “providing processing of virtual credit card, virtual debit card, virtual prepaid card, and virtual payment card transactions in the metaverse.” HSBC also included a number of NFT services, such as “downloadable digital files authenticated by non-fungible tokens (NFTs).”

HSBC joined the metaverse by partnering with blockchain virtual gaming platform The Sandbox in March. However, HSBC Group’s CEO, Noel Quinn, said in September that crypto is not in the bank’s future.

An increasing number of major corporations and financial services institutions have filed trademark applications covering a wide range of digital currency and metaverse products and services. For example, Visa, Paypal, and Western Union filed crypto-related trademark applications in October. Last month, JPMorgan Chase was granted a wallet trademark covering various virtual currency and payment services.

⚡️ G20 exploring coordinated crypto regulation

Nirmala Sitharaman, finance minister of current G20 president India, said the group of major economies is exploring whether it can coordinate on crypto regulation. Sitharaman — whose government, under Prime Minister Narendra Modi, and central bank have long debated laws potentially banning cryptocurrencies.

"We are talking with all nations, if we can make some standard operating procedure which is followed by everyone to make a regulatory framework, and if it can be effective," Sitharaman added. Though the Indian government and the Reserve Bank of India have historically been opposed to decentralized cryptocurrencies, the central bank has shown a keen interest in central bank digital currencies. Late last year, it began a pilot for a wholesale digital rupee to reduce transaction costs.


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Income Tax Applies to Crypto Trading in Bosnia, Tax Administration Says

Individuals are expected to pay income tax on gains from cryptocurrency trading, the tax authority of Bosnia has determined. In the absence of dedicated regulations, the federal government in Sarajevo has set up a working group to assess various risks associated with digital assets.

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🇧🇷 Banco do Brasil Bank Now Supports Crypto Tax Payments

In a recent announcement, Banco do Brasil, the oldest Bank in South America has just allowed taxpayers with cryptocurrencies held in Bitfy to pay taxes with these assets. Bitfy is a startup specializing in blockchain solutions and has invested in BB’s Enterprise Venture Capital Program – CVC.

This initiative puts Banco do Brasil at the forefront of modern and efficient solutions while democratizing access to new financial technologies and providing convenience for customers as it expands the options for receiving taxes from the public sector. It works the same way when a customer pays for a ticket with a barcode. All he has to do is select the cryptocurrency on which he wants to pay taxes, capture a barcode or enter a sequence of numbers. All tribute information will appear to be validated before payment confirmation.


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​​Crypto community expresses Christmas market sentiments: ‘No Santa rally’.

A community member pointed out that the lack of movements may be because of the controversies surrounding centralized exchanges.

Traders looking forward to a rally during Christmas were disappointed as the markets turned out to be steady as many celebrated the holidays. Crypto community members expressed their disappointment by sharing memes, with some even employing their creativity through poetry.

On Dec. 23, Data tracker Coinstats shared an image showing positive market movements and floating the idea of a potential “Santa Claus rally.”

However, with Bitcoin’s volatility index hitting record lows on Dec. 25, any thoughts of having a merry BTC rally on Christmas were put to a stop. Data from Cointelegraph Markets Pro showed that the top crypto hovered around $16,800 on holiday.

A community member pointed out that the lack of a rally this Christmas may be because of the controversies that surrounded centralized exchanges like FTX and Binance this year. Adding creativity to the mix, analytics tool CMM shared poetry inspired by the FTX collapse involving the firm’s former CEO, Sam Bankman-Fried.

Meanwhile, another community member hinted the lack of Christmas gifts may be because Santa was affected by the crypto dips as well. On the other hand, some Twitter users expressed frustration by sharing memes.

One shared a photo of a cat doing a thumbs-up while thanking Santa for the “Christmas pump” that didn’t happen. Another shared a photo of a psychologist supposedly treating a crypto trader for believing in a Santa rally.

While the crypto markets were at a standstill, bad actors within the space continued their work. In a recent exploit, around $8 million in assets were compromised because hackers hijacked an APK of the BitKeep wallet. The team urged its community members to transfer their funds to wallets downloaded from official sources like the Apple App Store or Google Play.

Apart from this, another exploit was conducted by hackers linked to North Korea’s Lazarus Group. The attackers allegedly launched a wide phishing campaign that targeted nonfungible token (NFT) users. The hackers launched around 500 phishing domains to lure their victims and steal their NFTs.

​​Hal Finney’s wife resumes activity on Bitcoin pioneer’s Twitter account to avoid potential purge.

Under Elon Musk’s leadership, Twitter suspended a number of accounts including those controlled by high-profile journalists and social networking platform Mastodon.

Fran Finney, the wife of computer scientist Hal Finney — the recipient of the first transaction on the Bitcoin blockchain from Satoshi Nakamoto — reactivated her late husband’s Twitter account amid concerns Twitter CEO Elon Musk might purge the content from the social media platform due to inactivity.

Many Crypto Twitter users reported on Dec. 16 that Finney’s account registered activity for the first time in more than 12 years. Some speculated that a hacker might have taken control of the Bitcoin pioneer’s account and its more than 71,000 followers, but Fran quickly stepped in to dispel rumors.

“I am tweeting for Hal to avoid his account being purged by Elon,” said Fran.

It’s unclear whether Fran Finney’s intervention may save the crypto pioneer’s social media presence. Amid Musk’s $44-billion purchase of Twitter which was completed in October, he claimed he backed free speech as “the bedrock of a functioning democracy.”

However, under Musk’s leadership, the social media platform on Dec. 15 purged a number of accounts controlled by high-profile journalists at institutions including CNN, the New York Times, and the Washington Post. Accounts tracking the movements of Musk’s private flights as well as promoting social networking platform Mastodon — which has attracted many Twitter users following the billionaire’s takeover — were also suspended. The Twitter CEO claimed the former “doxxed my exact location in real-time.”

Musk had a net worth of more than $300 billion in October 2021 before the acquisition of Twitter, and around the same time, the price of Tesla stock reached an all-time high of $407.36 in November 2021. In roughly a year, the Bloomberg Billionaires Index showed that the Tesla CEO had dropped to the second richest person on the planet, with a reported net worth of $169 billion at the time of publication.

As CEO, Musk oversaw a number of controversial decisions at Twitter that had many in the business world questioning his acumen.

📣 Crypto Payments Firm Wirex and Visa Expand Partnership to 40 Countries

Cryptocurrency payments app Wirex has signed a long-term global partnership with Visa (V) to expand its footprint in Asia-Pacific (APAC) and the U.K., according to an announcement on Monday. The announcement builds on the two companies' existing relationship of a crypto-linked visa debit card in the U.S.

With this expansion the London-based Wirex, which has over 5 million customers, will now be able to directly issue crypto-enabled debit and prepaid cards to over 40 countries. While its largest customer-base is in the U.K., Wirex had previously withdrawn the U.K. Financial Conduct Authority's (FCA) temporary registration regime ahead of a deadline to obtain full registration which meant it would serve U.K-based customers via a subsidiary licensed in Croatia. Visa wants to bring more payment options to consumers by connecting digital currencies.


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NFT Marketplace Blur Launches Native Token, BLUR Price Drops 85% in a Matter of Hours

The Blur non-fungible token (NFT) marketplace launched its native token this week, and users who were awarded token allotments received “care packages.” Blur tokens began trading at noon on Feb. 14, reaching a high of $5.02 per token. However, the coin has since dropped more than 85% against the U.S. dollar.

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📊 Crypto Markets Steal The Spotlight Ahead Of US Inflation Data

The SEC dragged down cryptocurrency markets last week, and now the New York Department of Financial Services has ordered Paxos to stop producing BUSD. The January inflation rate in the United States is up next. Prices are estimated to have risen 0.4% month on month in January.

According to Youwei Yang, chief economist at Bit Mining, the statistics will be regarded as favorable overall if the yearly rate is around 6% or lower, which might counter some of the regulatory-related selling. The New York Department of Financial Services ordered Paxos to halt creating the BUSD stablecoin, sending crypto prices lower. Bitcoin dropped in value as a result of the news. and all eyes will be on the publication for any signs of acceleration that could prompt the Federal Reserve to take new action.



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⚡️ Vitalik Buterin Advises Focusing on The Tech to Avoid Crypto Weariness

Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin has spoken out about the state of the crypto industry and how to avoid growing tired of it. On Dec. 4, Vitalik Buterin responded to a question from a popular community member who said they had grown tired of the scammers and fraudsters in crypto after nine years.

Crypto is used primarily as a vehicle for speculation at the moment, and that is where fraudsters thrive. The FTX meltdown was caused by a bank run catalyzed by major overleveraging and lending.Zk-SNARK is an acronym that stands for “Zero-Knowledge Succinct Non-Interactive Argument of Knowledge.” It is a cryptographic proof that allows one party to prove it possesses certain information without revealing what the information is.


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Bitcoin Ordinal Inscriptions Surge Past 100,000 Mark, Spurring Development of Supporting Infrastructure

According to the latest statistics, more than 100,000 ordinal inscriptions have been added to the Bitcoin blockchain since the start of the trend. Amid the growing popularity, people have launched supporting marketplaces and tools that allow individuals to inscribe without a full node. Additionally, a decentralized Ordinal exchange is reportedly in the works.

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​​South Korea to examine crypto staking services following the Kraken case.

No details on the timeline and methods of the examination were provided, but reportedly it would be conducted moderately as no wrongdoings have been registered in the country.

As reported by a local publication on Feb. 15, Korean financial authorities are looking into the staking services market. However, as the unnamed official specified to the journalists:

The fears of the crypto community about the possible repercussions of the recent court deal between the United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and Kraken are starting to materialize. Following their American counterparts, South Korean regulators intend to examine the crypto-staking operators in the country.

“The position is that there is nothing to be a problem because nothing has been done.”

No details on the timeline and methods of the examination were provided, but it could affect some legislative decisions. In contrast to more common operations with digital assets, crypto staking isn’t defined by Korean regulation at the moment.

The global discussion on crypto staking kicked off with a Feb. 9 settlement between the SEC and Kraken crypto exchange. Kraken agreed to pay a $30 million fine and halt its staking program. The move was widely criticized by the American crypto community and even the SEC’s acting commissioner.

In his analysis for Cointelegraph, J.W. Verret, an associate professor at the George Mason Law School, warned about the SEC’s intention to use its Kraken playbook against staking protocols in general:

“It’s becoming clear from a pattern across financial regulators and the White House that the subtext in the administration’s policy toward crypto is that it should be choked off.”

In February, South Korea’s Financial Services Commission established guidance that specifies which types of digital assets will be considered and regulated as securities in the country. The law considers securities as financial investments where investors are not required to make additional payments after their original investment.

​​Bitcoin’s Difficulty Slides 7.32%, Reduction Marks the Largest Drop in 2022

On Dec. 5, 2022, at block height 766,080, Bitcoin’s mining difficulty adjustment dropped 7.32% lower, making it the largest difficulty reduction in 2022. The current difficulty is approximately 34.24 trillion and it will remain at this point for the next two weeks or 2,016 blocks.

Bitcoin’s difficulty retarget has dropped, which makes it a bit easier for bitcoin miners to find a block than it was during the two weeks prior. The difficulty change occurred around 8:50:29 p.m. (ET), at block height 766,080 and it was the largest reduction this year. The difficulty reduction was larger than the prior record that was recorded at block height 745,920. At that time on July 21, 2022, the network’s difficulty dropped by 5.01% and the difficulty was around 27.69 trillion.

Prior to the 7.32% reduction down to 34.24 trillion, the network’s difficulty rating was at a lifetime high of 36.95 trillion. Satoshi created the difficulty retarget to change periodically or every 2,016 blocks so the average time to mine a block remains constant at around 10 minutes. Statistics show prior to block height 766,080, the average block time was around 10:48 minutes, which meant a notable difficulty reduction was predicted to happen prior to the change.

At the time of writing, at 9:00 p.m. (ET), the total hashrate associated with the Bitcoin network is around 271.33 exahash per second (EH/s). Foundry USA is the top bitcoin mining pool at the time of writing with 25.48% of the network or 64.47 EH/s. Foundry discovered 107 blocks out of 420 discovered in the last three days. Foundry is followed by the mining pools Antpool, F2pool, Binance Pool, and Viabtc respectively.

Uzbekistan Allows Foreign Firms to Deposit Funds From Crypto Trading, Restricts Other Operations


The Central Bank of Uzbekistan has permitted foreign-based businesses to open domestic bank accounts and deposit funds received from cryptocurrency trading. These companies will also be able to transfer the money abroad, but operations in the country will be restricted.

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​FTX Bankruptcy Judge Denies US Trustee’s Request for Independent Examiner

The judge presiding over the FTX bankruptcy case has denied the U.S. Trustee’s request to appoint an independent examiner for the ongoing proceedings. The decision comes after judge John Dorsey postponed the ruling last week, citing concerns that the examiner could cost creditors tens of millions of dollars.

In the latest filing in the FTX bankruptcy case docket, judge John Dorsey has denied the appointment of an independent examiner. Dorsey stated that the current team, led by FTX CEO John J. Ray III, is “highly qualified” to handle the bankruptcy proceedings independently. The decision overrides the U.S. Trustee’s request to hire an independent examiner, which was said to be mandated by Congress.

The judge presiding over the FTX bankruptcy case stressed, however, that he had “no doubt that appointing an examiner would not be in the best interest of the creditors.” According to estimates, current management claimed that expenses for an independent examiner could reach between $90 million and $100 million. “Every dollar spent on administrative expenses in these cases is $1 less for the creditors,” Dorsey stated during the hearing, agreeing that an examiner could be very costly.

Since Dec. 1, 2022, an attorney for the U.S. Trustee, an arm of the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ), has been attempting to appoint an examiner to the FTX case in the Delaware bankruptcy court. During the case, a representative for the Trustee argued that the appointment of an independent examiner was mandated by Congress and no longer within Dorsey’s authority.

The Trustee’s argument was supported by a letter from four bipartisan U.S. senators insisting that an independent examiner be appointed. However, the decision by the Delaware bankruptcy judge emphasizes that his court’s authority has overruled the government’s request.

🇬🇧 Next UK financial regulator calls for tougher crypto rules: FT

Ashley Alder, the UK’s next Financial Conduct Authority chair, had harsh words for crypto platforms as he addressed members of parliament, the Financial Times first reported. at scale, according to the newspaper.

The criticism from Alder comes as anti-money laundering tests held by the FCA ruled out 85% of firms that applied, according to FCA chief executive Nikhil Rath, who spoke earlier this year at a banking summit. Expected UK Treasury regulations are set to introduce consumer protections, impose limitations on foreign sellers, restrict product advertising and offer provisions when companies fail.


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Moody's Says Forex Shortages May Force Nigerian Central Bank to Delay Repaying Local Banks

The persistent scarcity of foreign exchange may force the Nigerian central bank to delay repaying the $10.4 billion owed to local banks, analysts at Moody’s Investors Service have concluded. The central bank’s failure to pay its debts on time will likely force the affected financial institutions to similarly delay paying back their own forex-denominated debts.

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