1) 60 year old behind $340,000 Cryptocurrency scam in India has been arrested.
Umesh Verma, a former jeweler and greeting card maker who with his son had promised at least 45 people 20% to 30% monthly return on investing in a scheme available on Pluto Exchange. Verma used to promote and sell a new cryptocurrency called “Coin Zarus” in this scheme. But shortly after their scheme launched in November 2017, returns dried up and Verma reportedly dropped off the radar and had resurfaced in Dubai in 2018. It is interesting that Umesh Verma had been arrested earlier in December 2017 over an unrelated gold smuggling case. As per the Indian English-language daily newspaper Hindustan Times, Pluto Exchange was the first to launch a mobile app for cryptocurrency, promising the ability to buy, sell and store Bitcoin using only a mobile number in India.
This Thursday Verma got arrested at Indira Gandhi International Airport by Delhi Police.
2) Dogecoin increases by 49% in past 24 Hours.
Dogecoin is up by 49% in the past 24 hours as per the data from CoinMarketCap and went ahead to become the best-performing crypto asset of the top 100 by market capitalization. According to CoinGecko, DOGE has seen strong volume figures on this rally. Dogecoin is now trading at its highest price since the February 2018 rally. Elon Musk, CEO of Tesla and SpaceX, also tweets about Dogecoin “One Word: DOGE” “Former CEO of Dogecoin” and that too has helped it to rapidly gain price.
3) Bitcoin crosses the $30,000 mark.
As per MarketWatch data, the Bitcoin-gold rate has hit an all-time high surpassing the previous peak from December 2017. If we conclude 2020 for Bitcoin it has seen an increase of 300%. Willy Woo, a popular statistician said
If you’re looking for an entry to HODL Bitcoin long term, don’t nickel and dime an entry. You’re not going to sweat a few thousand dollars of non-perfect entry when it’s $100k,$200k,$300k in a year. The main bull phase is here. Capital inflows has gone nuts
4) The total trading volume of NFT had hit $8.2 million in December 2020.
According to CryptoArt.io a cryptocurrency art analytics platform, the total trading volume of non-fungible token (NFT) artwork hit an all-time high of $8.2 million in December 2020 which was $2.6 million in November 2020. Richard Chen, the creator of CryptoArt.io said
Crypto natives are starting to understand the value NFTs bring to verifying the authenticity of the original artwork. Furthermore, big-name digital artists like Beeple are discovering what NFTs are and how they open up a new business model for artists other than commissions.
5) Nine Congresspeople have opposed Treasury’s crypto ruling in letter.
Nine congresspeople have signed on to a letter to USA Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin about his crypto ruling. His proposal has also received outrage from the crypto community as well.
Kathryn Haun, a general partner at a16z focused on crypto assets said
Late yesterday, instead of following that process, @stevenmnuchin1 slashed the ordinary comment period to just 15 days, on a Friday before the holidays no less, for crypto regulations that to us @a16z and others in the crypto space don’t make much sense.
Treasury has also asked for a comment period of 15 days instead of 60 days. Letter says
The proposal in question was made public just before the Christmas holiday, and it announced that the public would be afforded 15 days to file comments. A comment period consisting of eight business days over two holidays is not appropriate for regulating any industry and could result in stakeholders being unable to meaningfully respond.