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Bitfinex Hacker Lichtenstein Gets 5-Year Prison Sentence

Ilya Lichtenstein, the man behind the infamous 2016 Bitfinex hack which resulted in $71M (now billions) being stolen, has got 5 years in prison for laundering with his wife, Mrs. Heather Morgan. They used every shady techniques like creating fake ID’s, darknet markets, and NFTs to hide their funds. After finally being caught Lichtenstein cooperated and helped solve cybercrime cases while his wife is also facing sentences soon.

Ilya Lichtenstein from Russia is has been sentenced to five years in prison for working together with his wife to steal and launder billions of cryptocurrency. His wife is a rapper who goes by the name  “Razzlekhan” on her social media and she also pleaded guilty last year for their heinous crimes. Reportedly, Morgan has faced an 18 month sentence recommendation and that will be finalized on November 18.

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This case dates back to 2016, the time when Lichtenstein managed to hack into the Bitfinex exchange, stealing 119,754 Bitcoin worth $71 million at the time. The recent surge of Bitcoin makes the overall stolen amount rise to billions of dollars. The scale of this money and the complexity involved in the case has made this one of the most infamous heist in crypto.

Judge somewhat praised Lichtenstein by calling his Bitcoin heist super calculated. He and his wife both, used fake IDs, crypto exchanges, and even bought NFTs to hide stolen funds. However, after pleading guilty he cooperated with cyber police force and is also helped them solve other cybercrime cases. He showed remorse and promised to fight against cybercrimes. This case really highlights how wild crypto crimes can get.

Bhutan Sells $33M in Bitcoin Amid Price Surge

Bhutan has just sold $33.5M worth of Bitcoin at its peak price, this added to the previously sold $66M overall becomes $100M and this is just the data of this month. Well, even after this the country still holds 12,206 BTC, that totals about $1.11B. Bhutan mines bitcoins using its epic hydro power. Their strategic moves are inspiring other nations, with talks of a U.S. “Strategic Bitcoin Reserve” gaining major buzz.

The kingdom of Bhutan has just recently sold about  367 Bitcoin, worth around $33.5 million, through Binance. Arkham Intelligence says that the transfer took place exactly  at 12:06 a.m. UTC. Bitcoin’s price was high, above $90,000 at that time. Two weeks earlier Bhutan had sold  $66 million worth of Bitcoin, that time it was just $70K which is still lot but after the elections BTC has really surged like never seen before.

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Overall Bhutan still has about 12,206 BTC, considering current price that amounts to about $1.11 billion. These Bitcoins holdings are managed by Druk Holding & Investments. Bhutan seems to sell them strategically so as to make as much profit possible. The recent rally of Bitcoin was the right moment for them to sell out some of the BTC and hence profit is all theirs.

Conclusion

Bhutan’s killing it as the 5th biggest Bitcoin-holding government, leveraging its hydro power energy source instead of seizures to mine BTC. Their high sell-strategy is attracting every major global organizations. Even the US. is thinking of creating a “Strategic Bitcoin Reserve” with recent buzz from Trump and Senator Lummis.

Pennsylvania Looks to Build Bitcoin Reserve

Synopsis: A latest bill has been proposed to invest state funds in Bitcoin in Pennsylvania’s legislature which is being led by the one and only Mike Cabell. This Pennsylvania Bitcoin Strategic Reserve Act would allow the corresponding state to fight against rising and terrifying inflation by allocating a maximum of 10% of certain funds into Bitcoin. This initiative signals rising interest in crypto as a strategic asset across the great U.S.

State Pushes for Bitcoin Reserve

The latest legislative move done by Pennsylvania wants to make Bitcoin which is a booming cryptocurrency right now into a part of the state’s financial strategy. This idea planted by Representative Mike Cabell, the bill, now known as the Pennsylvania Bitcoin Strategic Reserve Act. This act this act of brilliance into the crypto space proposes investing up to just 10% of key state fund which also includes the Rainy Day Fund in Bitcoin. Cabell very boldly claims and strongly believes that Bitcoin is the future and could provide an economic buffer in difficult times.

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Bitcoin as a Safety Net

One of the current global problem includes inflation and U.S. is no different as inflation still remains a rising concern, Cabell in the mist of all this trouble suggests Bitcoin as a helping hand hoping to stabilize the state’s economy. Notable and reputed players like BlackRock and Fidelity continuously investing in Bitcoin offer a hint of the asset’s potential to diversify and bring hard resilience to portfolios.

National Shift Toward Crypto

This start from Pennsylvania goes hand to hand with a broader pro-Bitcoin sentiment across the United States right now. as the call for a national digital asset framework grows day by day. The bill came after Pennsylvania’s recent Bitcoin Rights legislation. which passed the House and showcases residents’ rights to securely hold digital assets.

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Trump’s World Liberty Financial Integrates Chainlink for Offchain Data

Shortly, World Liberty Financial (WLFI) is a decentralized digital finance projects also widely known as DeFi project which has links to Trump Organization and is now partnering with Chainlink to combine data feeds in support of its upcoming Aave c3 Launch.

Partnership with Chainlink

WLFI announced it’s partnership with Chainlink on November 14 and said it selected chainlink to provide necessary price feeds and data connectivity for its decentralized finance service. It is also said and highly anticipated that this partnership will begin with integration of Chainlink Price Feeds on Ethereum, however it still requires approval through WLFI’s Governance Platform. Chainlink isn’t the weak link in this partnership as it’s infrastructure provides access to essential onchain data and cross-chain capabilities, which have successfully powered and supported over $16 trillion in transactions.

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Trump’s Vision for Crypto

Eric Trump, WLFI’s web3 ambassador, showed excitement and enthusiasm about this unforeseen partnership, calling it a significant step towards crypto excellence. The project’s founder Donald Trump, boldy stated WLFI in September with a fantastic aim of establishing America as a global crypto phenom, a crypto sensation and be known as Global crypto leader.

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Hamster Kombat Surpasses $5.3B in Volume, Gains 11M Token Holders

Hamster Kombat token (HMSTR) is back on track as it stays hot in trading. It just hit massive $1.3B daily spot and $4B perpetual volumes, despite its Web3 game losing 86% of users since August. After this recent news, Tokenholder vibes stay strong at 11M even though active addresses and price have dropped significantly. Binance Dubai talks stressed keeping Web3 games fresh and emotionally engaging.

A profoundly known crypto gaming platform called Hamster Kombat has managed to amass a community of 11 million tokenholders. The team even jokingly compared this number to about 239 Yankee Stadiums full of hamsters, which made it seem like a legit strong community that holds strong belief in token’s value and so is the truth as well. On November 14, they declared an amazing $1.3 billion in daily spot trading volume and $4 billion in perpetual trading volume for HMSTR.

However, analysts report major decline in the user engagement lately. The token’s price reflects this decline well, as it has fell down form a high of $0.01 on September 26 to $0.0022 on November 4. Nevertheless, their loyal fanbase’s emotion remains strong and very much positive. CoinMarketCap research indicates that over 73% of the total 87,689 voters are very optimistic about Hamster Kombat, while remaining 27% are in doubt.

Recently, at Binance Dubai, Notcoin co-creator Sasha Plotvinov shared his opinion which stated that Web3 games need to vibe with players emotionally and always feel fresh to keep them engaged. Speaking especially on the “Telegram Mini Apps and Games” panel, he believes social and emotional connections are key to keep players coming back.

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VanEck’s Sigel Projects Bitcoin Price Base Case of $180K for 2025

Briefly, Bitcoin shows no sign of stopping and still continues its strong bullish trend, with experts and analysts strongly expecting further and more gains in upcoming quarters. Matthew Sigel who’s head of digital assets of widely known VanEck shares his point of view of bitcoin having $180,000 base case price in 2025, citing pro-crypto policies and technical indicators, which to us mere mortal seems absurd.

Pro-Crypto Sentiment Boosts Bitcoin Outlook

Since Bitcoin managed to hit all-time high of over $90,000 and an outstanding performance of 115% gain, investors and even crypto enthusiasts have their interest peaked. VanEck’s Sigel in his recent CNBC interview had only positive things to say about current Bitcoin rampage. Sigel not only had positive things to say about this Current raid boss of cryptocurrency i.e. Bitcoin, but he went ahead and stated that he and his firm expects Bitcoin’s price to continue to break all limit with a base projection of $180,000 for 2025.

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Analyst Predictions Mixed Amid Bullish Signals

Even though Bitcoin seems to be on a rampage right now with nothing to stop its advance some analysts are still skeptical and don’t seem to believe the data provided by Polymarket which suggests a 56% chance of bitcoin reaching $100,000. However, Critical Analyst might be somewhat correct because we’ve also covered similar topic of Bitcoin and Ethereum being overbought which could potentially cause a short term decline.

SUI Reaches Record High Amid Overextension Concerns

SUI’s rally is looking for one last stretch as RSI reported its being overbought quite much lately. Meaning the hype will sure chill out sooner than many would expect. Fibonacci math shows that it could reach highest which is expected to range around $3.77 to $4 before its eventual cooldown.

SUI is a native cryptocurrency of the SUI Blockchain. Its a layer 1 blockchain profoundly known for its high speed transactions and scalability. Its token SUI has been on a constant uphill ride. However, the rise is not so celebrated as experts assume its currently on its final wave of ascent and will quickly set down.

Relative Strength Index (RSI) which, as the name suggests, is a popular indicator in trading. It basically measures how much overbought or oversold is an asset and it measures it on a scale of 0 to100. This reliable source, RSI shows major overbought conditions in case of SUI which sharply signals a potential slowdown coming down inevitably. According to some indicators, the price is extremely overextended and the main question is how much it can go before reversing.

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SUI Price Forecast

As of November 11, the price of Sui’s token SUI is $3.29. It holds a 24 hour trading volume of about $2.9 billion. This price means it is still on its uphill ride as it has increased by 0.46% and considering past seven days it has seen a 46.63% price increase. There are total 2.8 billion SUI tokens circulating right now and they hold total market capitalization of about $9.3 billion.

Considering previous waves, this time the Fibonacci level suggests SUI might see its end after reaching  $3.77, but there’s still a slight chance it may go a bit longer and reach $4 dollars before it settles down for good.

Yei Finance Partners with OEV Network to Boost Oracle Extractable Value on Sei Blockchain

Yei Finance, something that’s widely renowned as the largest money market on Sei blockchain has finally combined with OEV Network with the aim of enhancing their recaptured maximum extractable value (MEV) for its loyal users. This collaboration will surely leverage OEV’s layer-2 solution, which primarily focuses on capturing oracle extractable value which benefits users with improved data feeds and capital efficiency.

Enhancing Liquidity and Innovation on Sei

Yei Finance mainly partnered with OEV Network because OEV Network combined with AP13 powered data feeds helps to recapture MEV, unlock new growth and liquidity for the platform. AP13 recently stated the collaboration on Nov.12, focusing on the point that Yei Finance’s partnership will enable the Sei lending platform to offer expanded liquidity options and capital efficiency across various assets.

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Supporting Growth in Decentralized Finance

This collaboration makes strengthens Sei’s Defi market by improving lending and borrowing effectiveness and efficiency. Yei Finance is based on Aave V3 framework, provides and makes lenders happy with reward program launched in June. It’s Total Value Locked (TVL) has seen significant growth lately, so much so that it managed to reach $338.6 million, as per the information given by DeFiLlama. In comparison to others, Aave V3 still remains one of the largest DeFi lender with TVL exceeding $26 billion which is a huge amount. Highlighting Yei’s rapid and drastic growth within Sei ecosystem.

By making fair use of OEV Network’s capacities, Yei Finance seeks to pull more users and enhance Sei’s DeFi ecosystem.

UK Unveils Crypto Regulations to Rival US Leadership in Blockchain

United Kingdom just came up with new rules this month, focusing more on stablecoins and staking. This act is all to stay relevant with Trump’s pro Bitcoin US. Some delays have put them behind but there is still a shot to lead if they move fast enough. Clear regs = more crypto startups staying in the UK.

UK government is planning to introduce new crypto regulations this month to reassure businesses and especially to compete with Donald Trump’s sharp progress in crypto firms with a clear stance on the sector. A report says, UK treasury will reveal two pieces of legislation which are primarily focused on stablecoins and its staking services.

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The major step up by UK comes with new crypto rules for stablecoins and staking to keep up with Trump’s crypto-friendly US and the EU. Stablecoins will get industry input on rules, and staking won’t face heavy regulations anymore. There are delays however, that have put the UK behind, but there’s chance for bounce back as there’s plenty left for them but they must act fast. With newly elected president Trump hyping up Bitcoin reserves and mining, United Kingdom needs clear and chill regulations to keep crypto status from bouncing.

Crypto Launderer Pleads Guilty in $73M Scam, Faces Major Sentencing

In brief, A Chinese-American dual citizen, Daren Li, admitted his crime in California federal court on Nov. 11 for laundering proceeds from a $73 million crypto scam. He admitted to his role of being included in directing shell company accounts to hide the origins of stolen funds from unsuspecting investors.

Scheme Specifics and Cash Flow

Daren Li acknowledged that, between August 2021 and April 2024, he defrauded victims of millions of dollars by operating a cryptocurrency investment scam that included pig butchering. In order to launder the money, Li used to advise others to open bank accounts in the United States using shell corporations. The money was thereafter converted to Tether (USDT) and transferred to digital wallets under the control of the powerful individuals.. As per the court details, a single walled linked to the scam had received over $340 million which is just an absurd amount to even think of. Further more the filing said.

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Authorities Take Action

After being arrested at Atlanta airport in April, Li alongside his co-worker Yicheng Zhang, who was detained in Los Angeles were charged in May. Authorities noted that $73.6 million went swiftly and directly into accounts linked to the scheme, while $59.8 million flowed through U.S. shell companies created to further disguise the assets.

Upcoming Sentencing and Financial Penalties

Li’s sentencing has been scheduled for March 3, 2025 where he potentially faces upto 20 years in jail including about three years of supervised release and $500,000 fine. This doesn’t end the punishment because he may also be ordered to pay victims the amount they were scammed off which amounts to about $4.5 million and $73 million.

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