The last week of April saw mild gains from the two most popular and largest digital assets by market capitalization in the form of Bitcoin (BTC) and Ethereum (ETH). Other cryptocurrencies such as Ripple (XRP), Cardano (ADA), Dogecoin (DOGE), Solana (SOL), Litecoin (LTC), and TRON (TRX) were also in green, data from CoinMarketCap showed.
While the market continued to recover, major news made rounds in the crypto sector.
Financial services giant Mastercard made it known that it wants to expand its crypto ecosystem.
The adoption of blockchain technology gained new strength as the state of California in the U.S. approved a digital wallet that will be used in government-related services.
After 18 months of trading below $60,000, a certain financial institution made a forecast that BTC will be hitting the $100,000 milestone by the end of 2024, a prediction that has been supported by other outlets in the past few years.
Crypto users were also alerted to the fact that cybercriminals are still on the lookout for vulnerable accounts after it was reported that around $4 million was stolen through crypto phishing uniform resource locators (URLs).
After reducing the crypto market to red in November 2022, insolvent crypto firm FTX sold LedgerX for around $50 million.
Below is an extensive look into the details surrounding the highlighted news stories.
FTX to Sell ‘LedgerX’ for $50 Million
On Tuesday, April 25, credible news portal Reuters published a blog post about Sam Bankman-Fried’s company FTX reaching an agreement to let go of LedgerX Limited Liability Company (LLC), a crypto derivatives platform for $50 million.
Due to the bankruptcy proceedings that have mired the company, May 4 has been slated as the date for the approval of the sale by a bankruptcy court in the United States.
Stakeholders of FTX are keenly waiting for some recovery of their locked-up funds and this news has come as a positive for many individuals associated with the firm.
This is why John Ray, the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) disclosed that the company is pleased to reach this agreement and shows the continuous efforts of its representatives to deliver recoveries to stakeholders.
FTX was once the second-largest cryptocurrency exchange by daily volume, trailing only Binance but only time will tell if this once-powerful company can settle all of its debts accordingly.
Bitcoin to Hit $100K, Standard Chartered Barks
Bitcoin is the most traded cryptocurrency by daily volume and Standard Chartered is one of the most respected financial institutions across the globe.
According to a note released by the banking giant during the last week of April, BTC could reach $100,000 by the year’s end of 2024.
The crypto winter that engulfed the market in 2022 in large part due to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, TerraUSD (UST) collapse, and the fall of FTX late last year has ended, according to the company.
Some of the factors Standard Chartered cited included improved profitability of crypto mining, stabilization of risk assets such as interest rates which will push more people into seeking assets with relatively higher annual percentage yields (APYs), and turmoil in the centralized banking sector.
As of 07:30 UTC on April 29, BTC was exchanging hands for $29,350.96, continued to see more than $10 billion in daily trading volume, and had a fully diluted market capitalization of about $617 billion.
Blockchain-Based Digital Wallet Gains Approval in California County
Many people think of blockchain technology as solely for Bitcoin, Litecoin, and others but there is more to the innovation than you might imagine.
Santa Cruz, a County in California has approved the use of a digital wallet powered by blockchain for official government services. A pilot program for the service has been scheduled for July 2023.
“We believe the value of digitizing paper documents, records, and services is an important step forward for the convenience of Santa Cruz County residents and improving equity and access for our community,” Zach Friend, the supervisor of Santa Cruz County said.
The global blockchain-based wallet market continues to grow. The global cryptocurrency wallet market was valued at around $7 billion in 2021. According to the Polaris Market Research and Consulting Report, the wallet market is expected to reach approximately $50 billion by 2030 at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 24.31%.
Crypto Phishing URLs Led to $4 Million in Stolen Funds
On Thursday, April 27, ScamSniffer, a Web3 anti-scam service provider shared via its official Twitter account that there has been a recent surge in phishing scams via Google Search Ads and this has led to users losing around $4 million.
Per the anti-scam service provider, several users clicked on malicious ads and were directed to fraudulent websites.
This is the primary reason why JPEX continues to alert our customers that they can only access our website via the URL (https://jp-ex.io/en/home). Our customers should keep their eyes wide open so as not to enter login credentials into a similar platform which will lead to a loss of their funds.
Mastercard to expand crypto partnerships
On Friday, April 28, financial services giant Mastercard which has already partnered with Gemini, Nexo, and Binance by offering them crypto-linked payment cards in certain countries said it was to expand its crypto ecosystem.
“We have dozens of partners around the world who offer crypto card programmes and they continue to expand,” Raj Dhamodharan, Head of Crypto and Blockchain said. He added that the firm is focused on making crypto safely accessible across the globe.
The crypto industry is currently dealing with regulatory issues. Should a global comprehensive regulatory framework be implemented industry-wide, companies such as Visa, Mastercard, and others will be free to forge more partnerships with several crypto-focused firms.