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A number of industry pundits believe the U.S. Office of Foreign Assets Control’s threat to impose sanctions has victims thinking twice about paying up. Ransomware victims have seemingly had enough of the extortion, with ransomware revenues for attackers plummeting 40% to $456.8 million in 2022. Blockchain intelligence firm Chainalysis shared the data in a Jan. 19 report, noting that the figures don’t necessarily mean the number of attacks is down from the previous year. Instead, Chainalysis noted that companies have been forced to tighten cybersecurity measures, while ransom victims have been increasingly unwilling to pay attackers their demands. Total value extorted by ransomware attackers between 2017 and 2022. Source: Chainalysis. The findings formed part of Chainalysis’ 2023 Crypto Crime Report. Last year, revenue from Ransomware was a whopping $602 million at the time of the 2022 report, which was later tipped up to $766 million. Chainalysis added that the nature of blockchain m...

Amid the macro bearish landscape last year, the total value locked in DeFi dried up and the yields were down to their average lows. Consequentially, the DeFi index price, showcasing the state of DeFi on Ethereum, also crashed. Towards the end of last year, it was hovering around $1.1k, while in early 2023, it dropped down to $1.07k. From thereon, however, there has been an improvement. As shown below, the reading of the same has already notched up to $1.85k, justifying the same. Source: ethereumprice.org Leaving aside the DeFi trend on Ethereum, the macro state of affairs has also been refined. Evidently, the price of top DeFi tokens has been on the rise. In the period between Jan. 11 to Jan. 17, the top-performing assets from this space fetched their investors with returns in the 48% to 70% bracket. In fact, their volume simultaneously pumped upto 602%, bringing to light the interest influx of market participants. Source: crypto.com DeFi market cap balloons up The impact ...

Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse said the firm's XRP lawsuit could come to an end within "single-digit months." Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse expects the firm’s long-running dispute with the Securities Exchange Commission (SEC) will be finalized within “single-digit months” and remains confident in securing a favorable outcome. Speaking to CNBC on Jan. 18 at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, Garlinghouse said the verdict could come as soon as June this year now that both parties have “fully filled and fully briefed” their arguments before the U.S. District Court: “We expect a decision from a judge certainly in 2023. You don’t really have control over when a judge makes their decisions. But I’m optimistic that sometime in the coming single digit months we’ll have closure there.” While Garlinghouse and investors believe the facts, law and the court will ultimately side with Ripple, the Ripple CEO also took the opportunity to ridicule the SEC’s “embarrassing” behav...

Join Our Telegram channel to stay up to date on breaking news coverage Gala (GALA) has been volatile for the past few days, consolidating between the $0.06 and $0.04 range as bears and bulls battle for control. The GALA price broke out on January 6, moving from $0.017 to $0.05 on January 13, marking a 194% rise in seven days, a 255% increase for the year 2023. At the time of writing, the GALA price was trading at $0.049 after losing 7.03% in the last 24 hours. The gaming crypto is recording a 24-hour trading volume of $536 million and a live market cap of $344.2 million, which puts it at #96 on CoinMarketCap list . The recent price volatility and bear outlook for the GALA coin comes in the wake of uncertainty about Gala Games collaborating with Hollywood stars for an NFT project. The pulling down of a post that had initially excited the GALA community sparked fear among token holders, fueling a sell-off. This, coupled with investor fears after a tumultuous 2023, explains the ...

Adobe Stock / Buffaloboy The electric vehicle (EV) industry is experiencing a rapid growth and with it comes the need for a more efficient and convenient way to charge these vehicles. Enter C+Charge, a blockchain-based platform that aims to make EV charging more accessible and convenient for EV owners. The platform connects EV owners with charging networks and allows for easy payment transactions, all while helping EV drivers earn carbon credits and sustainable cryptocurrency rewards. C+Charge is also addressing the current issues faced by EV owners such as limited access to carbon credits, no incentives for EV drivers, the absence of a unified payment solution, non-transparent pricing and shortages in charging solutions. By utilizing blockchain technology and creating a peer-to-peer payment system, C+Charge is making EV charging more efficient , cost-effective and transparent. How to Invest in C+Charge The C+Charge project is currently in the midst of a token pres...

The central bank of Georgia intends to publish a document detailing the concept of a national digital currency in the coming months. Other participating parties will use it to finalize their proposals for the pilot which the monetary authority plans to initiate in the first half of the year. Financial Authorities in Georgia Gear Up for Digital Currency Trials The National Bank of Georgia (NBG) is going to release a ‘digital lari’ whitepaper, allowing potential partners to fine-tune their proposals for the test phase of the project. A pilot version of the central bank digital currency (CBDC) was initially expected in 2022 but the NBG postponed the trials for this year. “In the first half of 2023, we will publish the document and soon after that, together with the winning partner, we will discuss how long it would take to implement the project,” Deputy Governor Papuna Lezhava explained in an interview with the Rustavi 2 TV channel. Several alternative approaches to testing the digita...

Source: AdobeStock / Сергей Шиманович The difficulty of mining a bitcoin block has increased by around 10% during the latest adjustment, suggesting that more miners are coming back online as prices continue to recover.  The adjustment at block height 772,128 is the biggest downward change since October 10, 2022, when the metric rose by 13.55%, data from mining pool BTC.com shows. More specifically, the difficulty has climbed to 37.59 trillion from the previous 34.09 trillion.  “Bitcoin mining difficulty increased by 10.26%, to an ATH!" mining pool f2pool said in a tweet following the adjustment. "In this 2-week cycle, If BTC can go up above $23,000, machines that are more efficient than 40W/T can be running with profits at the electricity of $0.08/kWh.” The Bitcoin mining difficulty is a measure of how difficult it is to mine a Bitcoin block, or in mor...

The Ethereum scaling blockchain, Polygon, has revealed plans to initiate a hard fork on Jan. 17, 2023. According to the team, the network upgrade will “reduce the severity of gas spikes” and “address chain reorganizations (reorgs) in an effort to reduce time to finality.” Polygon Team Outlines Network Upgrades to Improve User Experience On Jan. 12, 2023, the Polygon team told the community to “get ready for the hard fork” as developers have plans to upgrade the chain on Jan. 17, 2023. “The proposed hard fork for the Polygon PoS chain will make key upgrades to the network on Jan. 17,” the team tweeted. “This is good news for developers and users and will make for better user experience (UX). You will not need to do anything differently,” the developers insisted. Polygon (MATIC) developers have been discussing the upgrade since Dec. 2022. The V0.3.1 Hard Fork aims to reduce gas spikes and address blockchain reorganizations (re...

As part of the plan, Logan Paul stated that he will commit 1,000 ETH to repay disgruntled investors that want to make an exit via burning their CryptoZOO NFTs. YouTuber Logan Paul has unveiled a $1.5 million recovery plan for the people who invested in his beleaguered NFT project CryptoZoo. Announcing the move in a video shared via Twitter on Jan. 13, Paul reiterated that he is no longer looking to sue fellow YouTuber Coffeezilla for defamation over accusations he made in a critical series of videos on Paul’s NFT project. My 3-step plan for CryptoZoo, including a $1.3M rewards program for disappointed players. Thank you, @coffeebreak_YT pic.twitter.com/xFX017UHoc — Logan Paul (@LoganPaul) January 13, 2023 As such, Paul emphasized that he is instead focused on fixing CryptoZoo, delivering on the roadmap and making things right with fans and investors: “The fact is, suing Coffeezilla is not going to help Cryptozoo holders so I do need to focus my attention where it should be, w...

Inflation in the U.S. is cooling down as Thursday’s CPI report shows a drop to 6.5% in December from 7.1% in November 2022. The Feds’ hawkish interest rate hikes seem to be working but remain a long way to reach the normal rate of 2%. According to reports, the Federal Reserve could hike interest rates yet again in 2023 to tame the inflation numbers. The crypto markets reacted positively to the CPI data as leading tokens are on the greener side of the spectrum. In this article, we will highlight the top 3 crypto s to watch out for after the latest CPI data. Also Read: Bitcoin Sees its Longest Rally Since 2020 as Inflation Numbers Decrease BREAKING: 🇺🇸 US inflation falls to 6.5%. — Watcher.Guru (@WatcherGuru) January 12, 2023 1. Bitcoin (BTC) Source: Twitter Bitcoin jumped from $17,912 to $18,989 in less than 24 hours after the CPI data was released. BTC is looking to breach $19,000 and could climb above $20,000 if the markets continue to...

In the letter, SBF denies stealing funds and stashing billions of dollars away. The crypto community has voiced their opinions on former FTX CEO Sam “SBF’ Bankman-Fried’s “pre-mortem overview” of the collapse of FTX he published on Jan. 12 as a letter on Substack.  https://t.co/XVd0BPHxEU — SBF (@SBF_FTX) January 12, 2023 As previously reported by Cointelegraph, SBF denied the allegations made against him in the lengthy letter and maintained that FTX US had been “fully solvent” at the time the firm filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy, with approximately $350 million in cash available. Bankman-Fried further stated that FTX International had a substantial amount of assets (approximately $8 billion) when John Ray became CEO. According to Bankman-Fried, “No funds were stolen. Alameda lost money due to a market crash it was not adequately hedged for–as Three Arrows and others have this year.” Unfortunately for him, the crypto community seemed unimpressed by SBFs “pre-mortem overview....

Join Our Telegram channel to stay up to date on breaking news coverage Avalanche price skyrocketed 35% from $12.23 to $16.55 mid-week. This followed the news that Ava Labs, the company behind the Avalanche blockchain project, had partnered with Amazon Web Services (AWS) to scale blockchain solutions access to institutions, governments and enterprises. It is expected that the news will sustain AVAX’s recovery to higher levels. Avalanche’s Strategic Partnership With Amazon Web Services The 2022 crypto bear market has weighed down prices of most altcoins. That is why Avalanche needed positive fundamentals to breach a stubborn resistance level. Such support came from an announcement that the Layer 1 blockchain had partnered with AWS to scale the adoption of blockchain projects to institutions and governments.  It’s official! @Amazon #ChoseAvalanche to bring scalable blockchain solutions to enterprises and governments 🔺#AWS fully supports Avalanche...