Bitcoin OG Owen Gunden sells $1.3 billion in BTC as retail panic grows, while institutional ownership of Bitcoin ETFs climbs to 40% despite market fear. Owen Gunden, one of the richest early Bitcoin holders, has sold his entire Bitcoin position as retail investors flee the market and institutions continue increasing their share of spot Bitcoin exchange-traded funds. The wallet tagged as Owen Gunden by blockchain data platform Arkham transferred his last 2,499 Bitcoin (BTC) worth $228 million to cryptocurrency exchange Kraken on Thursday. In total, Gunden’s wallet has sold 11,000 Bitcoin worth around $1.3 billion since Oct. 21, liquidating his entire Bitcoin holdings, according to Arkham. Read more
US spot Bitcoin ETFs logged $75 million in inflows after five days of redemptions, hinting at early stabilization as Bitcoin recovers above the $92,000 level. United States-listed spot Bitcoin exchange-traded funds (ETFs) broke a five-day outflow streak on Wednesday, recording $75.4 million in net inflows as Bitcoin reclaimed the $92,000 price point. Farside Investors data showed inflows led by BlackRock’s iShares Bitcoin Trust (IBIT), which pulled in $60.6 million on Wednesday — still a far cry from offsetting its $523 million in outflows the day before. The Grayscale Bitcoin Mini Trust ETF (BTC) also saw a positive day, contributing $53.8 million in inflows. On the other hand, Fidelity and VanEck’s spot Bitcoin ETFs saw combined outflows of $39 million on the same day. Read more
Samourai Wallet’s co-founders received four- and five-year prison terms in the US for operating an unlicensed money-transmitting business through their non-custodial crypto mixer. The co-founders of privacy-focused Bitcoin wallet Samourai Wallet were sentenced to four and five years in prison Wednesday, setting an important precedent as privacy development makes a comeback in crypto. Keonne Rodriguez and William Lonergan Hill were sentenced on Wednesday for conspiring to operate an unlicensed money-transmitting business and for facilitating transactions involving criminal proceeds, the US Department of Justice (DOJ) said. Prosecutors argued that Samourai’s CoinJoin mixing service helped conceal the movement of illicit funds, even though the wallet was fully non-custodial. “The sentences the defendants received send a clear message that laundering known criminal proceeds—regardless of the technology used or whether the proceeds are in the form of fiat or cryptocurrency — will face serious consequences,” US Att...
BitMine’s $3.7 billion paper loss and the falling mNAV valuations are threatening the business model of DATs, according to 10x Research. Concerns are mounting over the sustainability of corporate crypto-treasury firms as BlackRock moves forward with a staked Ether fund that analysts say could compete directly with existing digital-asset treasuries. BitMine Immersion Technologies, the world’s largest corporate Ether (ETH) holder, is currently down $1,000 per purchased ETH, implying a cumulative unrealized loss of $3.7 billion on its total holdings, according to a Thursday research report from crypto insights company 10x Research. The decline in net asset value (NAV) across these firms is making it difficult to attract new retail investors while leaving many existing shareholders effectively “trapped” unless they sell at a steep loss, 10x Research founder Markus Thielen wrote in a LinkedIn post. Read more
Survey data points to cautious allocations, long-term holding and a preference for regulated platforms as Singapore’s retail market continues to mature. Singapore’s retail crypto market is entering a new phase of maturity, as traders are increasingly prioritizing trustworthy platforms over those with lower fees, according to a new survey. On Thursday, a joint survey by finance platform MoneyHero and crypto exchange Coinbase revealed that 61% of “finance-savvy” investors in Singapore now hold crypto, with trust emerging as their primary deciding factor for selecting exchanges, outranking fees. The data suggests that the city-state’s crypto ecosystem is evolving beyond chasing the cheapest exchange to placing value on regulated frameworks, security and long-term conviction. Read more
Bitcoin Core’s first independent audit found no serious vulnerabilities, with reviewers praising the project’s security, testing depth and overall code maturity. Bitcoin Core has cleared its first-ever third-party security audit, with results confirming that the software securing the world’s largest decentralized network is highly mature. The review, conducted by French security firm Quarkslab and commissioned by OSTIF on behalf of Brink, examined the project’s most sensitive components, particularly the peer-to-peer (P2P) layer and block validation logic, over a 104-day period between May and September. According to the report, Bitcoin Core’s codebase is “the most mature and well-tested,” the auditors evaluated, despite its size, which includes more than 200,000 lines of C++ and over 1,200 tests already in place. Read more