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A 33-year-old Serbian man has pleaded guilty to creating a dark web marketplace that raked in $18 million by selling over 30kg of meth and a host of other drugs in exchange for various cryptocurrencies, according to the Department of Justice (DoJ).  In 2019, Milomir Desnica launched Monopoly Market which, according to court records, presented itself as a typical online shop where users browse purchasable drugs under the categories of cannabis, ecstasy, opioids, prescriptions, and stimulants. Customers were required to buy the drugs with Crypto , such as Bitcoin or Monero, from individual vendors who made a commission on every sale. Desnica’s role included approving wannabe vendors. Police used crypto to buy drugs and expose the market In 2021, Monopoly Market began to collapse after US authorities placed several orders with the site and received over 100g of meth . Authorities in Germany and Finland subsequently helped seize the server hosting the site. Once confiscated, the co...

Despite falling below a threshold of $2 trillion in market capitalization last year, the crypto currency industry is again setting out on a promising path. Once again, crypto specialist Michaël van de Poppe shared his valuable insights into the current crypto market cap movements, as well as the next target in the future period, the analyst suggests it is aiming at a threshold of $1.8 trillion as the next milestone, in his post on X on November 8. Crypto market cap action analysis. Source: Michaël van de Poppe Notably, van de Poppe’s analysis of the crypto market cap chart patterns also signals that both higher highs and higher lows have emerged. With an expected consolidation of the market cap amid the $1.15 and $1.30 trillion range, the next target, he believes, is $1.80 trillion. Crypto market cap analysis Currently, market capitalization amounts to $1.34 trillion, recording an increase of 1.56% over 24 hours, coming off a robust 45.79% yearly increase, according to the data ...

Bitget emerges resilient in Q3 2023, recording a significant 9.43% market share and exceptional performance for its native token BGB, despite challenging market conditions. Crypto derivatives and copy trading platform Bitget has weathered a challenging Q3 market with noteworthy resilience, according to its latest transparency report. While the overall industry saw a decline in spot and derivative trading volumes, Bitget’s market share climbed to an impressive 9.43% in September. Bitget's latest Transparency Report: Q3 saw growth in market share , $6.7M+ profitable trades via Copy Trading, 69 new assets & BGB in Top 5 platform tokens. $368M Protection Fund & 200% PoR ensures safety. Expansion to Middle East & focus on DeFi & Web3. https://t.co/FAbzqQIIB5 — Bitget Trading Club UK (@BitgetUK) October 20, 2023 Exceptional token performance Bitget’s native token, BGB, emerged as one of the top five platform tokens by market cap, registering a...

Some analysts say GBTC’s discount is narrowing because investors are pricing in the SEC’s approval on several pending spot Bitcoin ETF applications. Grayscale’s Bitcoin investment vehicle, Grayscale Bitcoin Trust (GBTC) is trading at its lowest discount in nearly two years, as spot Bitcoin ETFs continue to inch toward potential approval in the United States. The latest data from YCharts shows GBTC’s discount to Bitcoin net asset value (NAV) has narrowed to 15.87% as of Oct. 13. Discount to net asset value (NAV) is a percentage that measures the amount that a mutual fund or ETF is trading below its net asset value. The metric is used to track how far away a security is trading away from its true value. Data shows that GBTC’s discount began to narrow when BlackRock and several other financial institutions filed spot Bitcoin ETF applications in mid-June, where the discount fell from 44% on June 15 to 26.7% by July 5. Since then, the figure has continued to narrow. GBTC’s Discount to N...

Bitcoin dragged the rest of the crypto market when it climbed above $27,000. Various altcoins have moved at varying paces over the past few days. XTZ, ATOM, STX, KLAY, and OKB are the top 5 gainers on CoinMarketCap. Bitcoin dragged the rest of the crypto market when it climbed above $27,000 at the beginning of Q4 2023. That move breathed new life into the crypto market, injecting some missing volatility. Various altcoins have moved at varying paces over the past few days, and in the past 24 hours, XTZ, ATOM, STX, KLAY, and OKB have topped the gainers’ table on CoinMarketCap. Tezos (XTZ) Tezos (XTZ) gained 6.09% in the past 24 hours to top the gainers’ chart on CoinMarketCap. The blockchain network’s token traded at $0.7029 at the time of writing, with a market cap of $671.7 million. Tezos is a smart contract-based blockchain protocol in the vein of Ethereum, with the additional aim of offering a more advanced infrastructure. The native token of the Tezos...

Join Our Telegram channel to stay up to date on breaking news coverage Since 2017, whenever the crypto market suffered a bearish period, crypto users had a choice to either cash out or convert their coins and tokens into stablecoins like Tether (USDT). Thanks to the fact that USD backs USDT, its price is fixed, so it does not get affected by the volatility of the bear and bull markets. Over the years, many more stablecoins were launched, but despite its past controversies, Tether never lost its dominance. Even now, in 2023, the prolonged bearish crypto market is pushing users toward USDT while other cryptocurrencies trade in the red. In fact, the demand has been so great that Tether had to increase its supply, which hit $83.5 billion earlier this week. This made its total supply near its all-time high of $84.1 billion. Tether previously reached this level last year, in 2022, while the crypto winter was at its strongest point. 1/ 📊 The total supply of $USDT has r...

Meme coins reflect a higher beta to the entire crypto sector, but does their recent 25% price drop signal a deepening bear market for BTC, ETH and large caps? The recent crypto crash hit meme coins hard, culminating with a 9% drop in total market capitalization from Aug. 14 to Aug. 21. During the same period, Pepe (PEPE), Shiba Inu (SHIB), and ApeCoin (APE) saw a 25% decline. The big question is whether this trend will affect the wider market, signaling a broader bear market or simply reflects lagging performance of meme coins. Total crypto cap (blue) vs. Pepe/USDT (green), Shiba/USDT (red), Apecoin/USDT (orange), August 2023. Source: TradingView Meme coins, like Dogecoin (DOGE), burst onto the scene driven by viral memes and community enthusiasm. However, their appeal faded due to a mix of factors. These coins rely on media hype and online communities for attention, yet they lack value beyond their meme origins. Their speculative nature leads to rapid price changes and volatility. F...

Canada updated its guidance for investment funds investing in crypto.  The notice outlines Canada’s expectation for funds either directly or indirectly investing in crypto assets. As of April, 22 public crypto asset funds have less than 3 billion Canadian dollars in net assets according to Canada’s Securities Administrators. CSA does play favorites in the notice, stating that it believes bitcoin and ether markets “best support the operations of Public Crypto Asset Funds at this time without compromising investor protection.” Currently, bitcoin and ether are also “the only crypto assets accepted as investments for Public Crypto Asset Funds.” “In the future, greater institutional support and mainstream adoption of other crypto asset s may result in those crypto asset s becoming suitable investments for public ly distributed investment funds ,” CSA wrote. The notice also brings up the possibility of a regulated futures market, which would provide “support for the proper valuation ...

Bad news continues to dominate crypto media headlines but Bitcoin and the wider market appear to not care. Despite the recent negative crypto and macroeconomic newsflow, the total cryptocurrency market capitalization broke above $1 trillion on Jan. 21. An encouraging sign is that derivatives metrics are not showing increased demand from bearish traders at the moment.  Total crypto market cap in USD, 1-day. Source: TradingView Bitcoin (BTC) price gained 8% on the week, stabilizing near the $23,100 level at 18:00 UTC on Jan. 27 as the markets weighed the potential impact of Genesis Capital's bankruptcy on Jan. 19. One area of concern is Genesis Capital's largest debtor is Digital Currency Group (DCG), which happens to be its parent company. Consequently, Grayscale funds management could be at risk, so investors are unsure if the Grayscale Bitcoin Trust (GBTC) assets could face liquidation. The investment vehicle currently holds over $14 billion worth of Bitcoin positions for it...