Countdown to Not Your Keys, Not Your Coins Day: Protecting Your Crypto, Bitcoin updates, SBF + breaking news.
Be Prepared for "Not Your Keys, Not Your Coins" Day: Tips for Protecting Your Crypto Funds
Merry Christmas and a Happy Holidays! January 3rd is fast approaching, and it's a day that all crypto enthusiasts should be aware of: "Not Your Keys, Not Your Coins" Day. This is a day to remind people of the importance of being in control of their own private keys, and to withdraw their funds from exchanges if they are not.
Every year, the crypto community encourages everyone to withdraw their coins from exchanges on January 3rd to ensure proof of reserves. A lot has happened to exchanges since last January and some could very well still be insolvent. Rumours are still circulating that some exchanges publicly announce insolvency in the near future. January 3rd, 2009 was the day the first Bitcoin block was minted, so it is in honour of that.
If you have any funds on an exchange, now is the time to consider withdrawing them to a wallet that you control the private keys for, ahead of January 3rd as if they are insolvent, better to get your funds out ASAP.
A great rule of thumb is that if you are not using the funds to trade within the next week, remove the funds from the exchange.
In other Bitcoin news MicroStrategy has increased its Bitcoin Holdings by another ~2,500 BTC this morning! As of 12/27/22 MicroStrategy holds ~132,500 bitcoin acquired for ~$4.03 billion at an average price of ~$30,397 per bitcoin. and I am assuming they hold the BTC in cold storage! As a note, he also sold 704 Bitcoin for a total of around $11.8 million, offloading at $16,776 per coin for tax purposes immediately after.
SBF was home for the holidays after escaping Bahamian prison after 4 days and agreeing to extradition to the US. Which of course, he then got out on bail almost immediately after entering the states. However, questions surround the source of SBF's almost record $250 million bail, as he previously claimed to have only $100,000 in his bank account and his parents, Stanford professors, don’t have the financial means to cover such a large sum. It is unclear where the funds came from, as someone else would have had to sign for it. Some say SBF didn’t actually have to pay anything and only put their parents $4M house up as collateral, with just a promise that he will pay $250M if he flees the country. so SBF was free this Christmas to play League of Legends and to sit at home on the computer how he pleases.
Avraham Eisenberg wasn’t so lucky. He was the hacker who successfully manipulated Mango Markets and made $67 Million, and now has been charged by the US with commodities fraud and manipulation. He was arrested in Puerto Rico yesterday and is being detained before he can face the courts. There will likely be no bail for him like there was for SBF. Avraham was taunting users on twitter tweeting that they couldn’t arrest him if they wanted to. That tide turned quick!
Last weekend, more than 100 BTC tied to the Canadian cryptocurrency exchange QuadrigaCX, was moved out of cold storage wallets.
The move has raised concerns among QuadrigaCX's creditors, who are owed millions of dollars after the sudden death of the exchange's CEO in 2019 resulted in the loss of access to the cold wallets. The auditor, EY, has stated that they were not responsible for the movement of the BTC.
It is not yet clear who is responsible for the transfer or what their intentions are. Is Gerald Cotton still alive? What do you think? Leave a comment at the end of the newsletter with your guess as to where he might be.
I still believe that privacy will be a major narrative in the next bull market, and increased regulation will also drive more interest in privacy coins. In this episode, I speak with Max Freeman, the creator of Epic Blockchain Protocol, about Epic Cash. We discuss the decentralized, peer-to-peer, privacy-focused cryptocurrency, how it compares to Bitcoin, and the principles of money and how the community believes BTC has strayed from the original vision outlined in the Bitcoin whitepaper. This is a fascinating conversation that I highly recommend if you're interested in privacy coins.
If you’re subscribed to our YouTube channel you will have also seen our interview with Foresight Ventures about VC investments in blockchain, dWallets from Odsy Network providing more access controls for We3, CrunchDAO that built a DAO for using groupthink to build trading signals, and more.
Other Crypto News:
$2 billion in digital assets taken off Binance in just 24 hours since our last newsletter, yet there have been no issues regarding frozen withdrawals.
Goldman Sachs says Gold will outperform #Bitcoin over long-term.
Canada bans margin and leverage trading https://cointelegraph.com/news/canada-bans-crypto-leverage-and-margin-trading-after-ftx-collapse
Federal Reserve raises interest rates by 50bps again in December.
Wells Fargo was ordered by the CFPB to pay $3.7 billion for illegal activity
According to ZachXBT Twitter investigator 3Commas platform stole API keys of almost 50 users stealing around $15M in funds. See details here.
CFTC) have filed fresh fraud charges against Caroline Ellison, former CEO of Alameda Research, and Gary Wang, former co-founder of FTX
Jim Cramer compared Binance to fantasy sports betting platform Draftkings, which is banned in many countries and states as illegal gambling, as a place he would rather keep his money rather than Binance.
The Nigerian government is considering passing a law that would recognize the use of bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies as a way to keep up with "global practices"
Yuga Labs has appointed Daniel Alegre as CEO in the first half of 2023. Alegre has experience in scaling media and gaming companies, including as President and COO at Activision Blizzard and in various roles at Google
According to a research report from Cirus Foundation, some major trends will occur in 2023 including security and cross-platform integration as a focus in the cryptocurrency industry, Data NFTs and the storing of personal data on the blockchain will be significant, and major brands will replace their loyalty program with cryptocurrencies.
Google has announced that it will finally add end-to-end encryption (E2EE) to Gmail on the web. While this is a positive step for user privacy, it's worth noting that Gmail should have been encrypted a decade ago. If privacy is a major concern, it may be worth considering using other privacy-focused email services such as ProtonMail or Skiff Email (which uses blockchain technology). Always consider the privacy implications of the services you use and take steps to protect your personal information.
Crypto platform Paxful removes ETH from its marketplace, leaning towards Bitcoin only.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and BlackRock CEO Larry Fink agreed to coordinate investment in rebuilding Ukraine. (Probably more money laundering).
Technical Analysis:
$BTC:
Bitcoin is barely holding its support after the drop after the FTX crash. Trading indicators still show the chart to be bearish since the beginning of November. I expect Bitcoin to at least drop a little bit back to its 15.5k support, and unless theres a sudden optimism in the market, it could drop below that.
$BTC.D Bitcoin Dominance:
Bitcoin dominance is in bullish mode, and could continue from its current 42% of market dominance all the way up to 48% of the market. This means that is Bitcoin drops, altcoins will drop more. In the scenario that Bitcoin rises, altcoins will not rise as much or they could fall. This is typical market behavior in a bear market.
That’s all for this week, Have a great New Years and my team and I will be working hard in January to deliver the best Crypto news, interviews, and analysis right to your inbox. And remember, keep your Bitcoin close!
Ashton Addison
CEO, Crypto Coin Show.
Great updates as usual Ashton!