Here’s what happened in crypto today
Need to know what happened in crypto today? Here is the latest news on daily trends and events impacting Bitcoin price, blockchain, DeFi, NFTs, Web3 and crypto regulation.
All spot Bitcoin (BTC) exchange-traded funds (ETFs) combined, except Grayscale Bitcoin Trust (GBTC), added 142,294 Bitcoin in total in January 2024 since its launch. Celsius, now from Chapter 11 bankruptcy in the United States, is set to start distributing $3 billion worth of crypto and fiat to creditors. Ripple chairman Chris Larsen was hacked out of 213 million XRP tokens, according to on-chain sleuth ZachXBT. Meanwhile, the Web3 ecosystem lost $38.9 million due to various security incidents in the first month of 2024.
9 spot Bitcoin ETFs added 142K BTC in January
According to public holdings data tracked by Cointelegraph, Grayscale Bitcoin Trust (GBTC) dumped a total of 132,195 BTC in January, reducing its Bitcoin stash by 21% from 619,220 BTC on Jan. 11 to 487,025 BTC on Jan. 31. However, the nine other funds actively caught up, adding 142,294 Bitcoin in total since the first trading day.
As of Jan. 31, all ten spot Bitcoin ETFs collectively held 647,709 BTC, up around 1.6% from the initial total holdings of 637,610 BTC, worth $27 billion at the time of writing, according to CoinGecko.
Many analysts and executives saw the launch of spot Bitcoin ETFs in the U.S. as a “sell the news” moment, with some analysts suggesting that more pressure could come from the futures market. In late 2023, ARK Invest CEO Cathie Wood predicted that some investors will “sell on the news” of spot Bitcoin ETF approval in the short term.
Celsius exits bankruptcy, commences return of over $3B to creditors
Cryptocurrency lending firm Celsius is set to start distributing $3 billion worth of crypto and fiat to creditors, along with launching a new Bitcoin mining firm. Celsius said Ionic Digitial will “continue to deliver recoveries to creditors,” and its stock is “expected to be publicly traded once the requisite approvals are received.”
Around 98% of Celsius creditors agreed to the bankruptcy exit plan, which comes over 18 months after it paused withdrawals in June 2022 and filed for bankruptcy a month later.
Celsius added it increased the amount of crypto available for distribution to creditors by around $250 million through “converting altcoins to BTC or ETH and through previous settlements.”
Ripple exec gets hacked
Ripple chairman Chris Larsen was hacked for 213 million XRP tokens, valued at roughly $112.5 million, according to on-chain sleuth ZachXBT.
Larsen responded to ZackXBT’s report, confirming the “unauthorized access” to his personal XRP accounts.
“[W]e were quickly able to catch the problem and notify exchanges to freeze the affected addresses,” Larsen said. “Law enforcement is already involved.”
XRP’s price briefly plunged on the news before recovering swiftly.
Security exploits and theft are nothing new for the crypto space. According to PeckShield, 2023 saw more than 600 major hacks in the crypto space, resulting in $2.61 billion in losses. The silver lining is that more than $674 million was recovered.
DeFi protocols lose $38.9 million in January exploits
Decentralized finance (DeFi) security startup Quantstamp found that various attacks on Web3 projects like smart contract hacks, key compromises and scams, resulted in total losses of $38.9 million in January 2024.
