This week in the crypto world we saw Unciphered offering to crack a $245 million Bitcoin wallet, Bitcoin jump $5,000 in one day, and the Wall Street Journal and Elizabeth Warren misrepresent terrorist crypto fundraising for their own means.
Sigh.
Unciphered Wants to Crack Locked $245 Million Bitcoin Wallet
Recovery firm Unchiphered petitioned former Ripple chief technology officer Stefan Thomas this week for a chance to have a crack at a drive containing more than ₿7,000 that he has been unable to access for years.
The IronKey drive, which is today worth nearly $245 million, is locked with a system that will see the data rendered irretrievable if the wrong password is entered too many times, and Thomas has only two goes left before this happens.
Unciphered would take a percentage of the accessed funds were it to be successful, but it is up to Thomas whether he is prepared to take the gamble.
Hamas Crypto Frundraising Gets Political
Hamas’ use of cryptocurrencies to raise funds for its terror operations grabbed headlines this week as it was used by American politicians to push for stricter crypto regulation. The Wall Street Journal used data from blockchain analysis firm Elliptic to claim that the terror group has raised over $190 million in cryptocurrencies, a figure that was weaponized by Elizabeth Warren to push the Biden administration to take a firmer line on crypto regulation.
Elliptic rebutted the Journal’s claims days later, saying that its figures had been “misrepresented” and that there was no evidence to suggest that anything like that amount had been raised. This wasn’t enough for the Journal to retract its article, despite Elliptic’s demand it do so, and further damage to cryptocurrency’s reputation had been already done.
Bitcoin Jumps $5,000 as ETF Edges Closer
Fans of magic Internet money were celebrating hard this week as Bitcoin put in a remarkable shift to jump $5,000 in 24 hours as further progress was made towards a Bitcoin ETF.
Bitcoin’s impressive performance was due to a number of factors regarding its now seemingly imminent arrival on the ETF scene, with a US federal appeals court sending Grayscale’s Bitcoin ETF application back to the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) for further review and BlackRock’s iShares Bitcoin Trust being officially listed on the Depository Trust and Clearing Corp with the ticker symbol IBTC.
Targets of $40,000+ have now sprung up within the crypto community, even as traditional equities endured a tough selloff which traditionally means the same is coming to Bitcoin.
