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Highlights
- Bitcoin sunk below US$40,000 for the first time since the beginning of February, dropping over 10% since Friday.
- Chainanalysis has said that almost 4% of cryptocurrency whales are, in fact, criminal whales.
- Multiple celebrities have been implicated in a class action lawsuit against Binance chain crypto Safemoon.
Bitcoin continued to tumble over the weekend after a slight recovery last week.
The world’s premier crypto sunk below US$40,000 for the first time since the beginning of February, dropping over 10% since Friday.
The fall highlights Bitcoin’s struggle to recover after a difficult few months, where the coin’s value has continuously declined since reaching a record high last November.
Meanwhile, Ethereum fell around 15% over the weekend to hit US$2,600.
In fact, nine out of ten of the top cryptos are in the red over the past 24 hours.
Study finds 4% of Crypto Whales are Criminals
Blockchain data company, Chainanalysis has said that almost 4% of cryptocurrency whales are, in fact, criminal whales.
Research from Chainalysis found that a little over 4,000 crypto whales were criminals – representing 3.7% of all whales.
The findings go hand-in-hand with the negative criticisms of crypto, which many critics believe represents a safe haven for fraudsters, money launderers and drug traffickers.
According to the findings, the illicit funds came from a variety of sources, including the Dark Web, which was ranked first at 37.7% and illicit scams – ranked second at 32.4%.
The areas identified as the place where most whales operated from were Russian cities: Moscow and Saint Petersburg. Then South Africa, Saudi Arabia, and Iran.
These figures come in the wake of another Chainalysis study, which found that the total of money lost to laundering in 2021 was US$8.6 billion – up 30% from 2020.
Altcoin News
Multiple celebrities have been implicated in a class action lawsuit against Binance chain crypto Safemoon.
The lawsuit alleges that Safemoon recruited celebrities in an effort to lure in investors. The celebrities include musicians Nick Carter, Soulja Boy, Lil Yatchy and YouTubers Jake Paul and Ben Phillips.
The lawsuit also alleges that Safemoon mimicked a Ponzi scheme – promising investors unrealistic profits.
The lawsuit specifically points to instances where the celebrities artificially boosted the trading volume and price of the Safemoon token.
Safemoon experienced months of positive growth last year. However, the loss of its C-Suite executives resulted in a major plummet of the token’s value.
The lawsuit alleges a rug pull occurred where there was a slow sell off of holdings during a period where trading volume was artificially bolstered by the implicated celebrities.
Winners and Losers
Image Source @ 2022 Kalkine Media® Data Source: Coinmarketcap.com, based on top 100 cryptos.
Note: Growth from the 24 hours prior to 12:30pm AEDT
