Author: Sahil Poudel

Mark Cuban Chooses Bitcoin Over Gold as an Economic Hedge

Billionaire entrepreneur and owner of the Dallas Mavericks Mark Cuban once again has come up with a strong endorsement for Bitcoin. While speaking of its value, he confidently stated, “I think it (BTC) has more value,” and made it crystal clear he’d choose Bitcoin over gold during an economic crisis.

That created a new, emergent view: Bitcoin as “digital gold,” or, differently said, the renewed version of this very old metal. Unlike gold-traditional refuge during turbulent times-Bitcoin boasts some extraordinary advantages: it is portable and divisible, and it can be transmitted across borders without storage and physical movement.

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Cuban’s optimism about Bitcoin is not new, though. During the year 2024, he expressed and doubled down on his support for both Bitcoin and Ethereum and strongly and very firmly made other investors aware and warned them off meme coins he called “a game of musical chairs.”

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With more investors looking for alternatives to traditional assets, Cuban’s endorsement points to a way where Bitcoin can reshape the future of finance. Because of its decentralized nature and growing adoption, Bitcoin is rapidly emerging as a cornerstone of a digital and resilient economy.

Thailand Pilots Crypto Payments for Tourists in Phuket

The new bold idea being tried by Thailand: letting tourists pay with cryptocurrency while in Phuket. Led by Deputy Prime Minister Pichai Chunhavajira, this initiative is being taken to make the life of travelers a bit easier while trying to keep the country ahead in this competitive game.

This program is designed such that it still has to follow current Thai law, so no new regulations are required. Tourists will verify their identities through local crypto exchanges, and a system will automatically convert Bitcoin into Thai baht for merchants. “We won’t do anything illegal,” Pichai reassured this while doing a seminar which was organized by the Marketing Association of Thailand.

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Phuket is an ideal place for this experiment because it is a popular tourist destination. It already has a sizeable population of foreign nationals, including refugees from the Russia-Ukraine war. According to Pichai, Bitcoin might be used for large transactions, such as buying real estate, to make things easier for them.

Crypto giant Binance, too, is making big bets on Thailand, praising its friendly regulations as it pushes to make crypto mainstream. But the safety concerns linger. Just this month, a Russian man in Phuket was violently robbed of $20,000 in a crypto-related dispute-a face to the risks tied to digital assets.

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Still, the crypto scene keeps developing in Thailand. Even now, a small town already makes everyday purchases in Bitcoin Lightning in the province of Kalasin-a sure-fire indicator that the future of crypto is bright in Thailand.

Andrew Tate Launches BRUV Party with Bitcoin Agenda

Andrew Tate is proposing a new political party, “Britain Restoring Underlying Values (BRUV),” on the most extreme platform, including blockchain-based voting and the creation of a national Bitcoin reserve. Tate, who has been under house arrest in Romania, took to social media to announce the party and its manifesto, saying his Bitcoin policies would “future-proof Britain’s economy” and insulate it from foreign economic blackmail.



The BRUV manifesto also flaunts far-right controversial policies, including capping non-British residents to 10%, deploying the Royal Navy to block tough immigration, and a ban on LGBTQ+ content in schools. Others include replacing modern art with monuments of British heroes and live-streaming knife crime offenders in solitary confinement-policies that critics have described as unfeasible and bizarre.

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The manifesto, while full of bombastic claims, has been ridiculed for AI-generated visuals, spelling errors, and a lack of sourcing. Tate went so far as to take to social media to back Donald Trump’s suggestion that Greenland join the U.S., calling resistance “insanity.”.

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He is not listed with the UK Electoral Commission and questions have also been raised over how much Tate knows about British politics. The news comes amid personal attacks on the Labour leader, Sir Keir Starmer, from figures on the right – including Elon Musk, who recently made a series of groundless claims about him.

Altcoins Take a Hit as Bitcoin Drops 5%

The cryptocurrency market took a nosedive in the last 24 hours, with Bitcoin down 5.48% at 96,308.64 dollars. That drop also scrubbed 1.91 trillion dollars off of Bitcoin’s market cap, even as trading volume jumped 28% to 62.75 billion dollars as investors scrambled for position.

Altcoins bore the most damage of the sell-off. Recent high-flyer, Hyperliquid dropped 15.29% to 21.62, giving back much of its recent appreciation. Celestia declined 14.71% to $4.66, with Ethena falling 13.65% and dYdX 13.49%. Meme coin Bonk was not spared and lost 13.29% to $0.00002976.

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The sell-off triggered mass liquidations, that saw over 204,000 traders lose positions worth $626.85 mln. Naturally, the bulk of pain was taken out of long positions; $565.68 mln liquidated as opposed to just $61.22 mln shorts. $17.74 mln of ETHUSDT on Binance was the largest single liquidation.

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Analysts say over-leveraged trades and profit-taking are to blame for the slump, especially in altcoins that have recently surged, such as HYPE. The correction could create avenues for buying, but analysts say the volatility of the market is not yet over, so traders should manage their risks and be cautious.

Hackers Steal $840K from Orange Finance on Arbitrum

Orange Finance, one of the most utilized DeFi protocols on the Arbitrum blockchain, has been exploited for upwards of more than $840,000. The hacker attacked vulnerabilities in the smart contracts of the platform that compromised the admin address and then siphoned the funds.

According to the Cyvers Alerts, the stolen assets were immediately converted into ETH, which further complicates tracking or recovery. An investigation into the breach was taken up by the Orange Finance team, who have as of now kept under wraps full details of how it happened.

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As a precaution, users are called upon to revoke approvals granted to the platform and abstain from any direct interaction with their compromised contracts. Orange Finance later confirmed that indeed the attacked smart contract is no longer within their control while assuring users that efforts are being directed to secure the system against possible further damage.

The team has also contacted the hacker through Arbiscan and offered him a deal to return the money. They said they would treat the breach as a white-hat hack and would not press charges against the hacker if he cooperated within 24 hours.

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This is an indication that there are still risks in DeFi, and users must be very careful. Orange Finance promised to keep the community updated as they try to recover the stolen funds.

ShibAI Rockets Over 18,000% in One Day After Launch

This new crypto token mixes the buzz of AI and meme coins to have gone absolutely viral, up 18,649% in the last 24 hours. It changes hands for $0.000816 on Raydium, and the hype is unreal.

ShibAI is the token running under the blockchain Solana, with an estimated cost of 0.05292 SOL; the full diluted valuation constitutes 610.58K. During the first day of its establishment, it successfully managed to add 4.4K holders, and a market capitalization that matched its full diluted valuation-the rarest cases for such fresh launches.

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Within the last 24 hours, the trading volume reached $3.99 million, with more than 42,000 transactions, including 24,580 buys. The $56.89K liquidity pool of ShibAI has kept trades going even during this wild price swing.

This explosive rise comes amidst dominance in the crypto space by meme tokens and everything AI-related, with ShibAI appearing to ride a similar hype wave to coins such as SuperTrump and MAGA that spiked recently on account of their unusual branding and linking up with hot events.

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Analysts are still debating whether ShibAI’s rise is just hype-driven or the start of something bigger. With so much early traction, the project’s roadmap updates and community engagement could determine whether it’s here for the long haul or just another flash in the pan.

Dogecoin Whales Snap Up 140M DOGE, Could a 30% Pump Be Next?

Dogecoin is abuzz once more, courtesy of “whales” that snapped up as many as 140 million DOGE tokens within just 24 hours. The splurge has thus lit a beaming ray of hope among traders and fans, with murmurs that as high as 30% can be seen pretty soon.

On-chain data, according to crypto analyst Ali Martinez, demonstrates this set of whales is not testing the water but has thrown themselves head on, stirring action into excitement in the market. In this wake of accumulation surge, Elon Musk readies his planned launch, the X Money payment system on his platform, X. Reportedly, these payments systems might support both DOGE and Bitcoin besides stablecoin, USDT:

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Although Musk himself has not announced anything on the official role of Dogecoin, mere speculation seems to get the DOGE community going. Add to that a steady price bump of 2% to $0.3861, and things are heating up pretty fast.

While the rally of the last five months was impressive at 365%, DOGE is still highly undervalued, an analysis by CoinGape points out. With the technical indicators leaning biasedly bullish and whales continuing to go on their shopping spree, analysts believe a rally of as high as 30% upward is very much plausible.

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It’s getting exciting in the Dogecoin camp because hype and hope are building.

Crypto Trader Gets Scammed Out of $520K in LINK by Fake Bridge Hustle

A crypto trader got scammed an outrageous amount of $520K worth of Chainlink (LINK) tokens after the person fell for a really sketchy and scummy fake bridge scam shared in a Telegram Decentralized Finance group. The scammers had promised the individual a faster and smoother way and procedures to move tokens but did the most heinous act of cleaning out the trader’s wallet, showing just how ruthless phishing scams in crypto have become.

Imagine losing half a mil in crypto because you clicked on the wrong link. That’s what happened to one DeFi trader who got punk’d by fraudsters running a fake bridge scam. The victim turned over 22,415 LINK tokens, valued at more than $520,000, after being tricked into signing a malicious transaction back on January 4, says Major L.

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Here’s the tea: the scammers dropped a link in a Telegram DeFi group, hyping up their “faster bridging solution.” It looked legit, but it was all cap. The moment the trader signed off, the funds were gone.

According to Web3 security watchdog Scam Sniffer, in the previous year alone, crypto peeps have lost a brutal $494 million to wallet-draining scams-a 67% increase from last year. And these scammers are leveling up, pulling stunts like fake Google Ads and even phishing through Zoom calls.

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Lesson here? Don’t trust random links, double-check URLs like your life depends on it, and stay sus of anyone being *too* helpful. Crypto space is a jungle-move smart or get rugged.

Ramaswamy’s Strive Asset Management Pushes for Bitcoin Bond ETF

Strive Asset Management, co-founded by Republican figure Vivek Ramaswamy, is doing a great work by filing for a Bitcoin Bond ETF with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). This bold move coincides with the anticipation of Ramaswamy’s party reclaiming the White House come January 20th.

If greenlit by the SEC, this Bitcoin Bond ETF will hit the trading floor on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) which work really well as it offers a fresh avenue for traditional finance institutions to get in on Bitcoin action through bond investments.

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Strive plans to go big, allocating over 80% of the ETF’s assets to Bitcoin-related bonds, derivatives, swaps, and options tied to crypto-heavy companies. What’s cool? Investors could see income distributed weekly—a rare perk in the ETF game.

The company sees Bitcoin as more than just digital gold; it’s a hedge against global economic chaos. Rising inflation, geopolitical drama, and mounting fiat debt are what makes Bitcoin a really vital and important asset in today’s volatile world.

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By rolling out a Bitcoin Bond ETF, Strive isn’t just catching up it’s paving the way for Bitcoin’s full embrace by traditional finance. Think easier trading, live markets, and an open door to institutional crypto adoption.

Ripple CEO Says Trump’s Got Crypto Buzzing Again

Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse hit up Twitter with some major vibes, calling this the “Trump bull market” and saying the crypto world is straight-up thriving right now. He’s hyped, and he’s got good reason: Ripple’s looking like it’s back in the game after years of what he called “SEC drama” under Gary Gensler, which he claims totally clipped their wings in the US.

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Now, it’s a whole new energy. Garlinghouse shared that a whopping 75% of Ripple’s current job openings are based in the US—big switch-up from the last few years when they had to go global just to keep moving. And deals? Ripple’s been on a tear, locking in more US agreements in the last six weeks of 2024 (post-election vibes, of course) than in the entire six months before.

What’s sparking the glow-up? Garlinghouse says it’s all about Trump’s pro-crypto squad, giving shoutouts to Scott Bessent, David Sacks, and Paul Atkins for already pushing innovation forward—even before the new administration officially kicks off.

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“The Trump effect is real,” he tweeted. “Crypto’s getting its groove back, and Ripple’s right there with it.” The industry’s buzzing, and it feels like a new chapter for blockchain in the US.

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