Nigeria’s Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) on December 10 arrested 792 people linked to a massive crypto-romance scam operating out of Lagos.

The suspects, who included 148 Chinese, 40 Filipinos, and several other foreign nationals, were caught during a surprise raid at an imposing seven-story structure known as Big Leaf in the affluent Victoria Island neighborhood.

Sophisticated Scam Network Unveiled

According to information shared by the agency, the operation followed intelli

Bitcoin’s price shows some worrying signs suggesting that a deeper correction is bound to occur, as the price has failed to hold the $100K level.

Technical Analysis

By Edris Derakhshi (TradingRage)

The Daily Chart

On the daily chart, the price has been gradually rising over the last few weeks, creating a new record high above the $100K mark. However, in the past few days, the market has failed to continue its bullish momentum, falling below $100K and even dropping to as low as $92,000.

If t

Ethereum has once again failed to reclaim the critical $4K resistance level, leading to a notable decline in price. However, the cryptocurrency has now reached a significant support zone, where a rebound followed by consolidation is anticipated.

Technical Analysis

By Shayan

The Daily Chart

Ethereum’s $4K price region has proven to be a critical resistance zone over the past year, consistently halting bullish advances due to strong selling pressure.

Most recently, the price faced another rej

CyberKongz, a gaming-based NFT project, announced on December 16 that it has received a Wells Notice from the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

The notice raises concerns about the platform’s integration of its ERC-20 token with blockchain games and questions aspects of its activities, including its 2021 contract migration.

The SEC’s Argument

In a post on X, the CyberKongz team expressed their dismay with the agency’s handling of the situation, saying:

“We are extremely disappoi

The crypto industry grew remarkably in 2024 amid rising coin prices, but the same cannot be said for on-chain users across most relevant chains. A 2024 on-chain user report by the blockchain growth platform Flipside revealed a need for networks to offer quantity and quality on-chain activity to attract users and turn them into high-value contributors.

According to the report shared with CryptoPotato, only Base, the layer-2 network launched by the largest American crypto exchange, Coinbase, expe

TL:DR;

Investors with lots of conviction for certain assets tend to utilize deep corrections to stack more of those coins, and this seems to be the case in regards to the two of the largest cryptocurrencies – DOGE and XRP.

On-chain data shows that large wallets poured millions into both during the recent market meltdown.

The market-wide crash that began in the middle of the business week caught many by surprise, given the billions of dollars worth of liquidations that were evident on a couple

After a few consecutive days of price slumps, bitcoin’s trajectory has finally reversed as the asset popped above $99,000 earlier today.

The altcoins are also in the green following the market-wide crash, with many recovering by double-digit increases on a daily scale.

BTC Begins Recovery Mode

The business week began in a highly positive manner for the primary cryptocurrency, as its price surged from around $101,000 to over $108,000 by Tuesday to mark its latest all-time high. While the commu

The cryptocurrency community witnessed one of its most volatile and challenging weeks in recent history. Bitcoin, for example, went from $100,000 last Saturday to over $108,000 by Tuesday to reach a new record but then dumped by $16,000 to a multi-week low of $92,000 after the Fed’s hawkish comments for 2025.

It has recovered about seven grand since then and is now close to $100,000 once again. Aside from causing billions of dollars worth of liquidations from over-leveraged traders, these enhan

TL:DR;

The entire cryptocurrency market went through a massive crash in the past few days, but Ripple’s cross-border token was among the poorest performers.

Since then, though, XRP has gained roughly 20%, leading to the question of whether it has found its bottom.

XRP Bounces Off

The developments at the start of the business week couldn’t really foresee what would transpire just a few days later. On Monday, Ripple announced that its long-awaited stablecoin will finally see the light of day o

Metaplanet Inc. plans to issue ¥5.0 billion ($31.9 million) in ordinary bonds to accelerate its Bitcoin buys.

The company announced this in a December 20 post on X, adding that the repayment will be made from exercising its 12th series stock acquisition rights.

Details of the 5th Series Ordinary Bonds

In a separate post, Metaplanet CEO Simon Gerovich said the money accrued from the offering will be used to push forward the buying of BTC initially planned for 2025 to before the end of 2024.

“

Reports have emerged that hackers compromised the X account of the newly-established Department of Government Efficiency (D.O.G.E.) co-lead Vivek Ramaswamy.

The attack led to a whirlwind of misinformation and market frenzy surrounding the four-month-old USUAL stablecoin project.

False Claims Propel Market Activity

It started with a now-deleted post initially thought to be from Ramaswamy, announcing a “strategic partnership” with USUAL that would leverage cryptocurrency to help reduce the fede

TL;DR

Shiba Inu partnered with Chainlink to enable cross-chain functionality and enhance Shibarium’s ecosystem.

Despite that, SHIB and LINK prices dropped significantly amid a broader crypto market pullback.

The Collaboration

The popular meme coin project Shiba Inu announced a partnership with the blockchain oracle network Chainlink. As a result, the assets SHIB, BONE, and LEASH adopted the Cross-Chain Token (CCT) standard to become available across 12 blockchains. 

This mechanism, employin

Bitcoin (BTC) is currently worth around $94,000 after trading above $108,000 earlier this week. While traders continue to take profits, analysts believe the cryptocurrency still has room for growth.

According to an X thread by Rafael Schultze-Kraft, the co-founder of the on-chain market intelligence platform Glassnode, over 20 charts and metrics suggest BTC has yet to form its top for this cycle.

More Room for Growth

The Market Value to Realized Value (MVRV) metric, which measures unrealized

It’s not always roses and rainbows in the cryptocurrency market and even though it may have felt like it for the past few weeks, the last seven days made sure to remind us of it. The total capitalization dropped by more than $300 billion as Bitcoin’s price went on a complete rollercoaster, similar to that of the majority of altcoins.

The first few days of the week started as we are more or less used to by know – up only. Bitcoin’s price tapped a new all-time high above $108,000 and the market w

Ripple’s price was consolidating for the last few weeks, failing to create a new all-time high. This week was particularly eventful, though, as the asset first jumped above $2.7 before a market-wide crash took it south hard to just under $2.

By Edris Derakhshi (TradingRage)

The USDT Paired Chart

On the USDT pair, XRP has been rallying almost vertically for a few weeks. Yet, with the RSI demonstrating a clear overbought signal at the beginning of November, the market has failed to continue its

Craig Wright, who has repeatedly and falsely claimed to be Bitcoin’s pseudonymous creator, Satoshi Nakamoto, was handed a one-year suspended sentence in the United Kingdom for five counts of contempt of court.

The computer scientist was also fined £145,000, approximately $180,000 for his actions.

Wright Breached Court Order

During a December 19 hearing, Judge James Mellor ruled that the Australian national had breached a court order by filing lawsuits against Bitcoin developers.

Despite a pr

TL;DR

Pi Network reported 18 million KYC completions and hinted at an open mainnet launch by Q1 2025, sparking mixed reactions.

Users were cautioned to rely on official channels and use the authentic Pi Wallet to avoid scams.

The Latest Update

Pi Network – a controversial cryptocurrency project that allows people to mine digital assets directly from their smartphones – remains one of the trendiest topics in the space. While it saw the light of day in 2019, its native token and open mainnet h

TL;DR

Bitcoin (BTC) dropped 14% in three days, influenced by the Federal Reserve’s inflation concerns.

The meme coin market saw a sharp 20% drop, with assets like DOGE and SHIB facing double-digit losses and analysts predicting further losses for the former.

XRP hit a multi-day low of under $2, but industry participants remain optimistic, highlighting key potential triggers for a future rally, including a Ripple ETF and regulatory resolutions.

BTC Loses $13K in Three Days

At the start of th

The landscape in the cryptocurrency space can change drastically in days. Recall that bitcoin tapped a new all-time high of over $108,000 on Tuesday, but its price has slumped to $94,500 since then.

This came after a few remarks by Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell, who warned that the central bank could not purchase BTC despite Trump’s promises and that there might not be any more key interest rate reductions in 2025.

With bitcoin reacting the way it did to those comments, this has led to s

TL;DR

XRP experienced a sharp decline, briefly falling below $2.20 following a broader crypto market correction.

Despite the dip many analysts foresee the asset rebounding to targets as high as $5, with some projecting even greater peaks if a FOMO-driven rally occurs.

XRP Follows the Market Decline

Despite the enhanced volatility, the first half of December has been quite successful for Ripple’s XRP. At the start of the month, its price surpassed a multi-year high of $2.80, while at the begi