Coming every Sunday, Hodler's Digest will help you lot track every single of import news story that happened this week. The best (and worst) quotes, adoption and regulation highlights, leading coins, predictions and much more than — a calendar week on Cointelegraph in i link.

Top Stories This Calendar week

Bitcoin flips bullish — just hither's why BTC toll may still hit $3,900

BTC has gained more than 10% in the by week, fueling hope that there's a bullish time to come alee for the world's biggest cryptocurrency. Unfortunately, it's never that simple. There was a valiant effort to smash through the critical resistance level of $vii,200 — just this triggered a huge rejection. Peradventure information technology'due south a little too shortly to expect a miraculous bounceback to $8,000 and beyond. In other developments, a survey suggests traditional financial institutions are condign increasingly interested in taking advantage of the recent crypto plunge. A whopping 97% are considering trading digital avails inside the side by side 2 years. Besides this week, the billionaire CEO of Social Capital said information technology could exist Bitcoin's time to shine and predicted the cryptocurrency could somewhen exist seen every bit a "flight to prophylactic."

Binance announces CoinMarketCap acquisition

Large news in the crypto sector this calendar week: One of the biggest mergers in the manufacture's history has been signed on the dotted line. Binance, the globe's biggest cryptocurrency exchange, has acquired CoinMarketCap, one of the most-referenced crypto information websites. The value of the deal is undisclosed, but it's rumored to have cost Binance a cool $400 million. Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao told Cointelegraph that negotiations had been ongoing for several months, adding: "The acquisition will enable united states to build on each other's strengths and farther grow and instill transparency in the manufacture." Both companies have stressed that CoinMarketCap volition continue to operate independently, meaning Binance will accept no begetting on cryptocurrency rankings. CMC's acting CEO, Carylyne Chan, added: "We'll stick to our listing requirements and make sure that everything is fair and unbiased to anyone who wants to list anything on CoinMarketCap."

Non April Fool's — Trump hints at $ix oil after adventitious Bitcoin plug

Last week, Trump had inadvertently advertised Bitcoin after actualization to suggest he supports manipulating the U.S. dollar. This week, the U.Due south. president raised eyebrows by indicating that he expects oil to crash to just $9. It comes as Russia and Saudi arabia keep their tiff, with both of them planning to increase oil production this calendar month despite a plunge in demand caused past the coronavirus. WTI crude prices accept tumbled by more than than 50% in the by thirty days alone — and are down 68% twelvemonth to date. Trump said: "Look, it'southward $22, only information technology's really much cheaper than that if y'all want to negotiate — nobody's seen that. That'southward like from the 1950s, it actually is — to call up that it was $50, $60, $70, $80 — and now information technology's $22, just you lot know, if you put a proficient bid in at $9, I call back you could probably get what yous wanted, correct?" The last time oil circled $10 was actually in 1998.

Pandemic is changing Bitcoin usage in "unexpected means," says Chainalysis

The coronavirus pandemic and the global economic slowdown are affecting Bitcoin consumer habits in surprising means, according to a new report by Chainalysis. The blockchain intelligence house says BTC merchant services accept shown resilience in contempo weeks — and although overall levels of spending have fallen, they haven't declined as dramatically as expected. Darknet markets are having a particularly miserable time. Their revenues accept decreased essentially, mayhap because the global supply bondage of illicit substances such as recreational drugs have been badly hit by the COVID-19 crisis. The Hubei province, the epicenter of the pandemic, is also a hub of the global fentanyl trade — and co-ordinate to Chainalysis, the disruption "could be hampering darknet vendors' ability to practise business organisation."

Did Apple merely kill crypto "burner wallets?"

Burner wallets — non-custodial wallets that shop a user's private fundamental in the browser's local storage — may have just been killed off by Apple. It'due south feared that recent changes to Intelligent Tracking Protection in the iOS on iPhones will jeopardize this model for good. The change is designed to enhance user privacy, with client-side cookies expiring after vii days. This implies that burner wallets volition be destroyed after that brusk period. One workaround appears to be adding a burner wallet to the iPhone's abode screen, simply software engineers have warned that this doesn't appear to be an easy task.

Winners and Losers

At the cease of the week, Bitcoin is at $6,790.33, Ether at $144.33 and XRP at $0.18. The total market cap is at $191,021,323,529.

Among the biggest 100 cryptocurrencies, the top three altcoin gainers of the week are Swipe, Digitex Futures and Quant. The top iii altcoin losers of the week are Status, WAX and STASIS EURO.

For more info on crypto prices, make sure to read Cointelegraph'south market analysis.

Most Memorable Quotations

"Our customers typically buy 60% more than they sell only during the crash this jumped to 67%, taking advantage of market troughs and representing strong need for crypto avails even during extreme volatility."

Coinbase, crypto substitution

"I predict — and this is not but the ultimate use case but the ultimate irony — that once people realize that they cannot get gold, they'll start flocking en masse into Bitcoin."

Max Keiser, Tv set host

"BTC does offer an culling store of value, and there is no question about that. The issue is: How good is it? It all depends upon when you lot buy and when you sell, and so there remains a huge element of luck."

Kevin Dowd, professor of finance and economic science, Durham University

"Bitcoin was innovated to become a safe haven during times just like this. So why aren't we seeing Bitcoin become the rubber oasis that it was developed to be and was for a number of years?"

Jeffrey Tucker, American Institute for Economic Inquiry

"Binance has no bearing on CoinMarketCap rankings. CoinMarketCap stays committed to providing the most authentic, timely and quality cryptocurrency data in the industry while benefiting from Binance's expertise, resources and scale."

Changpeng Zhao, Binance CEO

"The beautiful affair nigh our state is $half dozen.2 trillion — because it is 2.2 plus four — it'southward $6.ii trillion, and we can handle that easily because of who nosotros are, what we are. Information technology's our coin; we are the ones, it's our currency."

Donald Trump, U.S. president

"How much did nosotros pay Trump to annunciate Bitcoin?"

Samson Mow, Blockstream CSO

Prediction of the Week

Mike Novogratz may "hang his spurs" if Bitcoin doesn't hit $xx,000 in 2022

Every week on Hodler's Digest, we see endless predictions on where Bitcoin is going to be in the coming years — $1,000, $100,000, $250,000, $1 one thousand thousand… The list is endless. At that place's a bit of a twist this week. Mike Novogratz, a frequent flier in this column, has reaffirmed his conventionalities that Bitcoin volition accomplish an all-time high this year — and warned he might surrender on BTC birthday if it doesn't. The CEO of Galaxy Digital, a well-known Bitcoin bull, expressed his confidence that Bitcoin'due south toll will at least double past October. He also told CNBC: "This is the year of Bitcoin, and if it doesn't go upwardly at present by the finish of the yr, I might simply hang my spurs." Information technology is worth begetting in heed that Novogratz has made inaccurate forecasts before. He incorrectly predicted that Bitcoin would be back at $twenty,000 before the end of 2022.

FUD of the Calendar week

French soccer star claims crypto scam impersonated him

Paris Saint-Germain role player Kylian Mbappé has claimed that his proper name has been used without his permission on a cryptocurrency scam network. The French striker alleges that imitation statements attributed to him take appeared in advertizing campaigns where he is wrongly quoted as saying that people could become millionaires in two or three months. Crypto scam manufactures have also started circulating with the title: "The latest Kylian Mbappé investment that put pressure level on experts and scared large banks." Local government are now investigating the scam and said: "These pages are used to impersonate time to come victims, save your contact details, and then an alleged vendor calls them to explain the procedure for investing, but there is never a product that is invested in." Mbappé has fallen victim to this earlier. Last April, his official Twitter account was hacked, and tweets were posted where his followers were encouraged to make investments in crypto scams.

Philippine SEC warns of international Ponzi scheme offer 300% daily returns

A crypto Ponzi scheme is targeting Filipino, Australian and European investors, according to the Philippines Securities and Exchange Commission. The scheme — known as "Bitcoin Revolution" — offers investors exorbitant compounding daily returns on deposited funds. It claims to offer software that produces trades with a success charge per unit of between 88% and 95%, offering a path to seven-figure gains in only 61 days. From an initial eolith of just $250, the scammers claim that investors can earn 300% per 24-hour interval or 9,000% per month. The SEC is warning that anyone involved in the scam will face to 21 years of imprisonment and/or maximum fines of $100,000.

FBI arrests Russian rapper for crypto coin laundering, cites damning Instagram

A Russian national has been arrested on suspicion of money laundering, with U.S. regime pointing to an Instagram business relationship that promoted his rap career every bit evidence against him. FBI investigators merits Maksim Boiko laundered money using cryptocurrencies, including via the disgraced BTC-due east exchange. It's also alleged that he conspired with QQAAZZ, a transnational organized crime organization. Boiko entered the U.S on Jan. 19, carrying $20,000 in cash. He told airport security that the money had come from investments in Bitcoin and rental properties in Russia. Data from BTC-e showed his account had received deposits worth $387,964 — and pictures uploaded to his Instagram prove him property big wads of cash. The rapper has, er, 341 YouTube subscribers and ii,619 Instagram followers.

Best Cointelegraph Features

Crypto customs largely approves of Binance acquiring CoinMarketCap

The reaction has mostly been upbeat following Binance's acquisition of CoinMarketCap. Shiraz Jagati has had his finger on the pulse of reactions from across the industry.

Remaining anonymous: which crypto privacy solution works best?

Various methods to accomplish privacy in crypto transactions have been adult over the years. Andrey Shevchenko takes a look at some of the best-known solutions and explores their pros and cons.

How I taught a full stranger in Kenya about Bitcoin

Steven Msoh has written for Cointelegraph Magazine about educating random strangers well-nigh Bitcoin in Kenya — a country where the mobile money arrangement M-Pesa dominates the marketplace.