Bitcoin ATH pre-halving ‘unlikely,’ creditors sue FTX’s law firm, Worldcoin token spike

Well if you think that was a quiet Weekend in crypto believe me you weren't Paying Attention good morning you're listening To the rising crypto podcast by coin Telegraph with me Robert bags steering You through the crypto Cosmos with daily Dispatches from the digital Frontier if you want to ensure you are At the Forefront of everything happening In crypto make sure you click that Follow button grab yourself a coffee and Let's get into It bitcoin's price might not have moved Much over the weekend but I assure you There is a lot I need to catch you up on We'll start with some Bitcoin updates Including analysis on why Bitcoin is Unlikely to hit a new alltime high Before the harving then we'll look at Why coinbase has dropped Bitcoin Payments from its Merchants platform how Samman's worldcoin project has seen its Token sore in price and why FTX Creditors are suing Sullivan and Cromwell over alleged fraud Involvement so yes bitcoin's price Didn't move all that much this weekend But that isn't to say there is nothing Worth discussing here if you only read About Bitcoin when there are wild price Swings you'll miss all the good stuff Marcel Petman a crypto analyst and Writer at cointelegraph produced an

Excellent piece of analysis this weekend On whether Bitcoin will hit a new All-time high by the harving event as Some have predicted as it stands Bitcoin Is 10th in the world's top tradable Assets with a market capitalization of Just over one trillion to hit a new All-time high it would need to Rally 34.5% from the 52,000 price we have seen Lately and this is on top of the 91% Rally we've seen in the past 4 months so Marel asked the questions of whether the Current conditions support a $1.35 Trillion valuation of Bitcoin Marcel in Essence believes that a new all-time High for Bitcoin before the Haring event Is unlikely but that the long-term Vision is as healthy as ever the best Way of looking at it is by comparing the Situation of November 2021 when Bitcoin Hit that 69 ,000 ceiling as Marcel puts It it was fueled by low interest rates And skyrocketing inflation as of January The latest Consumer Price Index figures We have inflation is 3.1% year over-year Compared to a whopping 6.8% year-over Year in November 2021 now another Interesting point that Marcel raises is How the S&P 500 relates to bitcoin Investments in short the S&P 500 is Performing so well that Marcel says Investors have little incentive to seek Alternative assets compared to late 2021 But as for the longterm Marcel believes

That the spot Bitcoin ETFs help evolve Bitcoin into a mature asset class this Is a sentiment we've seen from the likes Of Kathy Wood of Arc investment among Others this would lead us back into the Gold ETF versus Bitcoin ETF debate that I've discussed twice in the past two Weeks so I'm just going to sidestep that Marcel concludes his analysis with the Following so as long as the dollar Continues to deteriorate there is hope For Bitcoin to Surge above $770,000 but It's unlikely to happen ahead of the Harving in April there are another two Bitcoin Related updates and this one is Interesting albeit rather brief on Thursday the 15th of February there was An automated Readjustment of mining Difficulty these tend to happen around Twice per month and simply put they Change how difficult it is to solve the Cryptographic puzzles used in the mining Process the more difficult it is the More computing power is needed to solve It the last adjustment was on the 2nd of February and it was an increase in Difficulty of 7.33% the adjustment on the 15th was Expected to be around 6% but was in fact An 8.24% increase incidentally I went Through btc.com stats and found that That is the biggest jump in difficulty

Since the 15th of January 2023 bitcoin's Difficulty level has more than doubled In the past year and with the difficulty Now at 81.7 3 trillion it represents a New all-time high now as I discussed Last week the harving event could mean That some older less efficient mining Rigs could go offline it was 15 to 20% Of the hash rate which is computing Power on the network according to Galaxy's analysis and this perpetually Increasing difficulty will certainly add To that strain however as Bitcoin is Self-correcting the harving will likely See a drop in difficulty as the less Efficient miners power down still this Is a very interesting all-time high to Hit and some are predicting that the Difficulty will hit 100 trillion in in The next few Months the final Bitcoin update also Pertains to coinbase a popular coinbase Product coinbase Commerce is a way for Merchants to accept payments in Cryptocurrencies however in a thread on X yesterday coinbase's head of product Lauren Dowling announced that coinbase Has removed support for Native Bitcoin And other utxo coins from its payment Platform ding wrotes the new Commerce Product enforces the details of each Payment on chain supports hundreds of Assets native and ERC 20s and Automatically converts payments to usdc

On chain at a Guaranteed Rate to Merchants delivering these same Capabilities on the Bitcoin blockchain Without Smart contracts and stable coins Was challenging and therefore we made The difficult decision to remove native Bitcoin and other utxo support utxo Stands for unspent transaction output And is essentially how much crypto is Left after a transaction is executed Like your sort of digital change Although Bitcoin is not utxo per se the Distributed Ledger technology that Underpins Bitcoin does use utxo Ethereum-based assets that lean on Smart Contracts are easier to work with in the Way that coinbase Commerce wants to so Bitcoin Dogecoin Litecoin Dash and Bitcoin cash among others are no longer Supported that is unless the Shopper Buying something from a merchant with Coinbase Commerce also has their own Account with the exchange coinbase's CEO Brian Armstrong added on X that the Company is hopeful of integrating Payments on the lightning Network to Facilitate transactions within the Bitcoin blockchain interestingly Armstrong added that zooming out we Think paying for stuff online with Crypto won't really go mainstream until We get off layer one and reduce Transaction fees and Confirmation times So we're trying to accelerate the move

Toward that world as you might expect Some in the crypto Community were less Than pleased with this news implying That coinbase is using this to force People to open a coinbase account and That some people are not even able to do That due to where they live I'd say it's Far more likely that this is part of an Ongoing struggle with regulations though But either way for now unless you have a Coinbase account with Bitcoin in it you Won't be able to pay for things with Bitcoin using coinbase Commerce samman the CEO of open AI is Very much in the Limelight at present Because of open ai's new product Sora Which allows the creation of absurdly Realistic videos from text prompts Honestly it is wild go look it up if it Isn't something you've seen or heard About already but that's not what this Story is about another project Co-founded by mman is worldcoin which We've discussed before if you remember I Used worldcoin last summer while Researching the concept for a podcast Worldcoin is a privacy preserving Digital identity that aims to offer Universal basic income with monthly Grants of its token wld now I like Worldcoin but it is a bit orwan in Places particular when a silver orb is Deep scanning your eye but it is Interesting and proof of personhood as

Worldcoin puts it is becoming Increasingly more relevant and important Particularly with the rise of AI which Is also largely Alman that's got to be Firing up some conspiracy theories Although it's also not helped by the Criticisms over personal data privacy That has led to its worldcoin services Being suspended in Kenya and the Irish Scans stopped in India incidentally and I'm not sure if this is related there Are no orbs in the UK anymore anyway Worldcoin announced over the weekend That the world app the Project's Official app has passed 1 million daily Users alongside this wcoins token wld Has soared 140% in a week and this is Likely a result of several factors Firstly the uptick and adoption cannot Be ignored the app had 100,000 daily Users in November and they've 10x that By mid-February secondly of course the Crypto sector as a whole has been Rallying on late and thirdly the AFF Forementioned Sora announcement has Likely seen people bullish about all of Alman's projects whatever the reasons Worldcoin is a fascinating project to Track from many different Perspectives and finally we're going to End with what might be the biggest story Of the weekend it's yet another layer to The FTX Saga one story we have Repeatedly returned to over the last few

Months has been the legal fees in the FTX bankruptcy proceedings an article From earlier this month by Noel kotcha Gave a great summary of how much it's All costing I'm just going to quickly Read an extract from that in the quarter Ending the 31st of October 2023 FTX Spent around $53,000 per hour on legal and advisory Fees according to recent compensation Filings documents from December the 5th To December the 16th 2023 reveal that The bankruptcy legal team build at least $118.1 million from the 1st of August to The 31st of October U averaging $1.3 Million per day or $53,500 per hour over The 92 days now you might recall that One person that has been slamming these Costs is the former SEC official John Reed Stark and he has taken to x a few Times to criticize the exorbitant fees After the concept of an FTX 2.0 relaunch Was scrapped Stark wrote Dare I ask this Question how much in legal and Consulting fees were scavenged from the Rotting corpse of FDX before coming to This patently obvious conclusion Stark Then went on to say one of my favorite Lines about this whole FDX ordeal which Was that these legal and advisory fees Are highway robbery of Highway robbers The chief beneficiary of these legal Proceedings is a firm called Sullivan And Cromwell and their estimated to make

Hundreds of millions of dollars Throughout this case they have around 150 people working on the case with 30 Partners billing $2,000 per hour even Their Associates are charging up to $1,500 per hour Now in the interest of fairness these Fees may not be completely untypical of A Major law firm working on a major case And the Billings were signed off in Court another example is the law firm in New York W gotell that made $500 million From the bankruptcy of the Layman Brothers however things have got more Serious for Sullivan and Cromwell as it Has emerged that the legal firm is being Sued in a class action lawsuit by ftxs Creditors the creditors claimed that Sullivan and Cromwell actively Participated in the FTX group's Multi-billion dollar fraud the filing Reads Sullivan and Cromwell knew of FTX Us and FTX trading limiteds emissions Untruthful and fraudulent conduct and Misappropriation of class members funds Despite this knowledge Sullivan and Cromwell stood to financially gain from The FTX group's misconduct and so agreed At least impliedly to assist that Unlawful conduct for its own gain the Lawsuit seeks damages for charges such As civil conspiracy aiding and abetting Fraud and aiding and abetting fiduciary Breaches so now there is a bit of a push

And pull situation going on over how Close a relationship FTX and Sullivan And Cromwell had the relationship began As a result of Ryan Miller a former Partner at the law firm joining the FTX Group as general Council and purposely Channeling cases back to Sullivan and Cromwell but the complaint also states That ftxs ex CEO Sam bankman freed would Often work in Sullivan and cromwell's Offices as they had such a close Relationship but I'll quote Anna Pala Pereira's article for the other side of This coin in a previous statement to Coin Telegraph a spokesperson for the Law firm denied any wrongdoing saying That Sullivan and Cromwell had never Served as primary outside Council to any FTX entity and had a limited and largely Transactional relationship with FTX and Certain Affiliates prior to the Bankruptcy interestingly this isn't the First time we've seen the suggestion of A conflict of interest with Sullivan and Cromwell representing FTX in January 2023 a bipartisan group of United States Senators wrote to a judge calling for an Independent examiner as they claimed That Sullivan and Cromwell were not in a Position to uncover the information Needed to ensure confidence in any Investigation or findings so this could Be a new and major chapter in what seems To be a NeverEnding FDX

Story well I did say that a lot had Happened and this might be the longest Episode of ryzen crypto so far but true To our word it is still under 50 minutes And that is it for today so consider Yourself informed thank you for Listening to the Horizon crypto podcast By coin Telegraph if you're enjoying These daily updates please make sure you Let us know by following subscribing or Leaving a review have a great day let's Do this again Tomorrow