Crypto Pirates

Crypto.com has been hacked. The cryptocurrency exchange made the announcement in the early hours of Monday following user reports of suspicious behaviour on their accounts. It is the first centralised exchange to be hacked in the year 2022, following a year in which multiple hacks cost exchanges and consumers billions.

Crypto.com (CRO) Is Compromised

Users of the Crypto.com exchange began reporting account difficulties. Subsequently, these users discovered that their accounts had been compromised and that their cryptocurrency amounts had been depleted. In some instances, the hacker made off with the whole balance of the accounts.

Crypto.com addressed these concerns on Twitter. In reaction to revelations of the theft, the cryptocurrency exchange quickly stated that it would suspend withdrawals for all customers on the site while assuring them that their cash remained safe.

The tweet highlighted that the hack affected just a small number of individuals. However, users of the network erupted in protest, claiming that this was not the case. The amount of complaints on social media about users losing money as a result of the attack has been steadily increasing. Most had considerable amounts of cryptocurrency stolen and pleaded with the exchange to take action against the incident.

Proceed with Caution

Following the hack's disclosure, Crypto.com immediately suspended all withdrawals from its platform. Users were unable to withdraw funds and those who had pending withdrawals were unable to complete their transactions. This was done to prevent the hacker(s) from performing any more withdrawals from the affected users' accounts.

The hack is believed to have occurred when attackers discovered a technique to circumvent the exchange's two-factor authentication security procedures. This caused Crypto.com to notify users that they must reset their 2FA credentials and log back into the platform to recover access to their accounts.

The cryptocurrency exchange stated that this update will be gradually rolled out to consumers. Withdrawals will thereafter be enabled, allowing users to send monies out of the exchange. "While we recognise this may be inconvenient, security always comes first," the conversation stated.

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Prime Minister Narendra Modi of India has urged international cooperation to address the issues posed by cryptocurrencies.

Modi stated electronically at the World Economic Forum's annual Davos meeting in 2022, "Cryptocurrency is an illustration of the types of problems we face as a global family in the face of a changing global order." To combat this, each nation and worldwide organisation must take coordinated and coordinated action."

Modi compared bitcoin to supply chain disruptions, inflation, and climate change, stating that "the type of technology connected with cryptocurrency renders judgments made by a single government insufficient to address the issues posed by cryptocurrencies." We must have a shared perspective."

The Indian government has not yet developed its own regulatory framework for crypto assets, but has opted to investigate existing regulatory frameworks and the evolution of global norms on cryptocurrency. The Finance Ministry has contacted the Bank for International Settlements (BIS) to assist in the formulation of its legislation.

The country's proposed cryptocurrency legislation is unlikely to become law until April, when the year's Budget Session concludes. According to reports, the law has evolved from barring all private cryptocurrencies while allowing "limited exceptions to promote the underlying technology" to permitting bitcoin to be used as an asset but prohibiting its use as currency or payment.

Modi questioned whether multilateral organisations are capable of addressing contemporary difficulties during his talk. "When these institutions were established, conditions were different, and they continue to be different today."

"That is why every democratic nation has a responsibility to place a premium on reforming these institutions in order to ensure that they are capable of addressing future modern challenges," he explained.

Modi, who heads the world's second-largest country, concluded his remarks by stating that new challenges require new approaches, that every nation requires the help of other nations more than ever before, and that he is confident the conference's deliberations will show fruit.

Modi delivered a virtual keynote presentation at the Sydney Dialogue, an annual meeting on emerging technology, on Nov. 18, 2021, in which he urged democratic countries to collaborate to ensure crypto "does not fall into the wrong hands" and "does not corrupt our kids."

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Distributed ledger technology (DLT) is a catch-all word for the technology that enables cryptography to function.

How much does trust cost? We rarely consider how much we pay for trust, yet we definitely place a premium on it. Typically, this value is shown when trust is violated or lost. That is precisely what occurred in 2008, when we discovered that the people in charge of the world's financial health were asleep at the wheel. We recognised that we were paying godly quantities of money to mere mortals for supplying trust. That is why cryptocurrency is such a significant deal. We can now construct machines to deliver trust as a service for the first time in human history. We no longer have to rely on flawed humans, which increases the accessibility of trust.

Distributed ledger technology (DLT) is a catch-all word for the technology that enables cryptography to function. It's a sophisticated system of incentives and penalties that incentivises millions of anonymous computers worldwide to be trustworthy. This is why Bitcoin is not backed by an individual or a corporation. And, certainly, this is a difficult concept to grasp, but so is our current financial system. Unlike the financial system, however, DLT is significantly more transparent, which makes fraud much easier to detect.

So what happens when the cost of trust is reduced? The first beneficiaries are the value creators and producers. They now suffer fewer losses as a result of layers of predatory middlemen. This is already evident in the remittance industry, where bitcoin can be used to move hard-earned money across borders at a significantly lower cost and with more security. As a result, hardworking men and women worldwide lose less of their hard-earned money to intermediaries such as Western Union.

NFTs are another excellent illustration of what happens when the cost of trust is reduced. At its core, DLT permits unambiguous ownership of digital assets such as NFTs without the use of an intermediary. Without the assistance of a trusted intermediary such as a record company, lawyer, or auction house, artists and other creatives can directly transfer ownership of their work to customers. In the case of NFTs, the traditional middlemen who verify ownership and facilitate the legal transfer of an asset are replaced by a trusted distributed ledger technology (DLT) system, such as Ethereum. As a result, creators of digital assets such as digital art, music, or video retain a greater portion of the sale earnings and can promote their work to anybody with an internet connection.

When the middleman is removed and creators are given greater value, wonderful things happen. Individuals are more motivated to create than to act as middlemen. Throughout my career, I recall numerous engineers desiring to go to finance due to the significantly greater compensation. The remuneration for finance, on the other hand, is high simply because most financial professionals operate as middlemen in the transfer of assets. If we eliminate these middlemen using DLT, a greater portion of the value can go to engineers and scientists who work on tough challenges that will improve everyone's lives. This means that we may create systems that reward individuals for decreasing carbon emissions or contributing to our evolution into a multi-planetary species; systems that reward creators, not intermediaries.

Throughout history, we have made numerous sacrifices in the name of trust; confidence in government, money, and religious organisations. And in the majority of cases, we've paid a tremendous price for it. Human humans are fundamentally wired to trust; it is ingrained in our nature. We should not be forced to pay such a high price. I'm looking forwards to all the beautiful things we'll be able to build now that trust at scale is so much more accessible.

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On Nov. 10, Bitcoin, the world's first and most popular cryptocurrency, hit a new all-time high of more than $68,000.

Bitcoin's previous record high occurred in October, when it came dangerously close to reaching $67,000. Prior to these recent highs, Bitcoin saw numerous ups and downs since its November high — including a July plunge below $30,000.

Despite the new high and continuous volatility, analysts continue to forecast that Bitcoin's price will surpass $100,000 this year.

What Are Bitcoin Investors' Responsibilities?

A new record high does not imply Bitcoin's volatility is finished - in fact, experts predict it to increase.

"Because it is a fledgeling sector, it is extremely volatile," explains Theresa Morrison, a certified financial planner with the Beckett Collective. As such, Morrison advises keeping your investment small enough that the "crypto tail" does not wag your financial dog. In other words, avoid investing so heavily in crypto that the currency's excessive volatility wreaks havoc on your overall portfolio.

As a general guideline, experts recommend that speculative investments — bitcoin, speciality ETFs, and alternative assets — account for less than 5% of your whole portfolio. Additionally, it is critical to never invest in bitcoin at the expense of other financial goals, including as retirement savings or debt repayment.

However, if you've already done all of these things and are wondering what to do in the aftermath of Bitcoin's newest new all-time high, the answer is simple: do nothing. The future of cryptocurrency is expected to see further volatility, so long-term investors should hold on to their currencies and avoid being swayed by the hoopla around these daily fluctuations.

"If you believe in Bitcoin's long-term potential, simply avoid checking on it. That is the wisest course of action," Humphrey Yang, founder of Humphrey Talks, previously told NextAdvisor.

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As merchants and customers gain familiarity with cryptocurrencies and the number of business applications grows, bitcoin's supremacy as the prefered payment currency erodes.

Almost a third of payments processed by BitPay, a crypto-focused payment processor, are made using ether, stablecoins, and a handful of smaller, so-called altcoins.

Ether currently accounts for 15% of payments made through BitPay, which offers businesses the ability to take cryptocurrencies at the point of sale, as well as a Mastercard-branded debit card that enables customers to spend a variety of cryptocurrencies at millions of retailers.

Stablecoins such as tether, or USDT, and Circle's USD Coin, or USDC, are rapidly gaining traction, accounting for 13% of BitPay payments, Bloomberg said. The remaining 3% is made up of three minor cryptocurrencies that BitPay began accepting in 2021: early bitcoin competitor litecoin (LTC), Tesla CEO Elon Musk's favoured dogecoin, or DOGE, and its spinoff shiba inu, or SHIB.

This is down from 92% in 2020, according to BitPay CEO Stephen Pair. He attributed some of the increase to the increasing use of stablecoins for cross-border business-to-business payments.

That However, the use of ether, the Ethereum blockchain's cryptocurrency, has risen rapidly since 2021, when the explosion in decentralised finance, or DeFi, and new financial technologies, or NFT, initiatives boosted its profile. The majority of them are based on the Ethereum blockchain and use ether to conduct transactions. For instance, Christie's recently auctioned a $69 million NFT collage valued in ether.

Consumption-Driven

"Consumer choice is what motivates the boss and their desire for an omnichannel approach to payments," BitPay COO Jim Lester recently told PYMNTS Karen Webster. "Merchants and billers must truly meet consumers where they are, and if that is through the use of a credit card, fantastic. If the card is a debit card, that is excellent. However, if the currency is crypto, this must be factored in."

Additionally, as cryptocurrency continues to grow, BitPay's COO sees an opportunity for financial institutions to lead or risk falling behind.

BitPay's volume increased 57% in 2021, he claimed, with fourth-quarter volumes increasing by 27% over the previous quarter.

Apart from the need to attract and retain customers, retailers who accept cryptocurrencies directly profit significantly from the absence of credit card issuers' hefty transaction costs, Lester said. BitPay enables retailers to accept bitcoin altogether or to convert it effortlessly from the cryptocurrency used by the customer to fiat currency at the point of sale.

"There are undeniable reductions and efficiency" in terms of merchant costs, he added.

Last year, PayPal extended support for ether and litecoin, as well as bitcoin (BTC) and competitor bitcoin cash, or BCH. After allowing clients to trade the three cryptocurrencies, the payments business began accepting them as payment at its 32 million-strong merchant network.

It's also worth noting how users are utilising cryptocurrencies. Pair told Webster that BitPay experienced a significant surge in the use of cryptocurrency for luxury products such as jewellery, watches, automobiles, boats, and even gold last year, nearly tripling from 9% in 2020 to 21% last year.

Use Cases Expanding

Stablecoin adoption is expected to continue to grow significantly in 2022 for a variety of reasons, most notably that by maintaining a one-to-one peg to the dollar (and other currencies such as the euro and pound sterling), they enable consumers and merchants to avoid the price volatility associated with cryptocurrencies such as bitcoin and ether, which regularly experience daily price changes of 5% to 10%. Additionally, Facebook's WhatsApp messaging programme, which has more than two billion users, has revealed plans to employ the smaller stablecoin Paxos as an internal currency.

Additional information is available at: Are Paxos and Diem the New Diems? The Issuer of Stablecoins' Facebook Pilot Program Has Just Been Expanded to 2 Billion WhatsApp Users.

Concerns regarding bitcoin and ether's huge environmental footprint, with power consumption similar to that of small- to medium-sized countries, are a significant and developing issue. Ethereum is addressing this by transitioning over the next year or two to a low-power blockchain system. Bitcoin miners are converting to more environmentally friendly energy sources.

Additionally, see Can Proof-of-Stake Solve Crypto's Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) Issues?

Tesla briefly considered accepting bitcoin as payment for its cars last year, but Musk later reversed his decision in response to outrage from environmentalists and ESG investors. Last week, he boosted dogecoin, which grew from obscurity to a top 15 — and occasionally top 10 cryptocurrency after Musk began promoting it on Twitter.

Despite this, BitPay COO Jim Lester told Webster that the crypto payments sector is still young and expanding.

"However, there is sufficient market traction," he explained. "As these huge merchants begin to move down this route, as the large processors begin to feel real pressure from their merchants, their enterprises, and their consumers to adopt it as a medium of exchange, the world will begin to shift in that direction."

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Here are three reasons why investors should consider Ethereum (ETH) as a top cryptocurrency to purchase as the new year begins.

Long-term investors seeking for the best cryptocurrency to invest in this year have plenty of options. Thousands of cryptocurrencies are available to investors, ranging from large-cap coins to smaller, high-growth initiatives. Ethereum (ETH), on the other hand, remains a popular choice for many – and with cause.

Those who have been on the sidelines and are ready to risk a small amount of wealth may wish to explore Ethereum as a core holding. I'll explain.

Ethereum fuels the expansion of DeFi.

Ethereum's investing thesis requires a grasp of the decentralised finance DeFi movement. DeFi, in its simplest form, refers to a collection of applications and projects aimed at upending traditional banking. Whether this entails simple money transfers or the ability to purchase digital currencies, non-fungible tokens, or other commodities on a decentralised exchange, this is a significant and growing phenomenon.

Ethereum, as it happens, serves as the DeFi movement's backbone. The overwhelming majority of DeFi projects are Ethereum-based.

Why?

Ethereum, on the other hand, was the first platform to support smart contracts. As a result, Ethereum-based projects can incorporate precise requirements that enable the creation of virtual contracts. These lay the groundwork for a large number of the advances that have become commonplace in the crypto realm. The metaverse is one of the primary initiatives that has many investors enthusiastic. Due to the fact that the majority of this activity takes place on the Ethereum blockchain, Ethereum can be considered as a wager on the growth of cryptocurrency beyond simple money transactions.

Ethereum 2.0 will be released in the near future.

One of the criticisms levelled towards Ethereum is that transfer speeds and costs are now quite slow and expensive. As a result, numerous investors are on the lookout for the "next big thing." And, as we've seen, "Ethereum murderers" abound.

Ethereum, on the other hand, is taking some audacious steps to refute this perspective. Indeed, Ethereum's transition to Ethereum 2.0 through a series of significant updates is a significant achievement. This transition will enable Ethereum to transition to a proof-of-stake network capable of processing a greater volume of transactions at a cheaper cost.

By and large, the majority of investors are approving of this move. Having said that, only time will tell whether this improvement is successful.

In short,

However, Ethereum is not risk-free. There are other competitive blockchains with smart contracts that are actually faster and less expensive to utilise. However, Ethereum's enormous ecosystem has created a sizeable "moat," according to many. As a result of its size and scale, many conservative long-term investors prefer Ethereum.

However, the network's impending migration to Ethereum 2.0 is definitely worth considering. Many investors who have already placed bets on Ethereum point to this upgrade as a reason to continue holding this top asset in the future. Indeed, if Ethereum's update goes as planned, this is a cryptocurrency with the potential to overtake the market leader — Bitcoin — in terms of worth, possibly this year.

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NFTs are divisive for a variety of reasons. Their connections to money laundering are another issue, but this is just like regular art, isn't it?

Non-fungible tokens (NFTs) are a common topic of discussion in the news. Someone will make millions one day by selling "digital art" as an NFT. The following day, a would-be NFT startup rug-pulled its investors, seizing their whole investment.

Without a doubt, NFTs are contentious.

One charge levelled against NFTs is their alleged involvement in money laundering. NFTs make it easier than ever to clean money from a criminal enterprise, assisting criminal groups worldwide in cleaning up their ill-gotten assets.

So how are NFTs used to launder money?

What Is a NFT?

According to our NFT explainer, an NFT is a "unique digital asset that cannot be divided into smaller pieces (unlike a digital or cryptocurrency), but has an indelible and traceable history (like the majority of digital or cryptocurrencies)." You can use an NFT to represent virtually any type of digital item, but they are most frequently associated with digital artworks.

Once generated, the NFT owner may sell their one-of-a-kind token via an NFT marketplace, establishing their own price in the hope that someone will purchase it. The majority of transactions are conducted in cryptocurrencies, while there are few exceptions, such as Beeple's Everydays: The First 5000 Days NFT, which sold for an astounding $69.3 million at Christie's first-ever digital art auction.

Are (NFTs) Used for Money Laundering?

It's difficult to see how non-fiduciary trusts are not exploited for money laundering. All of the moving elements are there to simplify the process of processing and cleaning money. NFTs and bitcoin trading provide a convenient layer of abstraction for criminals, are exceedingly easy to use, practically free at the point of service, and incorporate several privacy protections.

So how are NFTs used to launder money?

* The criminal organisation builds a one-of-a-kind NFT and advertises it on an online marketplace for NFTs.

* The criminal organisation acquires its own NFT through the NFT marketplace, assuming an alias that conceals its connection to itself.

There are a few additional moving components to the process, but they are few and far between, and that is the broad strokes of how NFT money laundering works. An company that uses NFTs to clean money is likely to use a wide network of cryptocurrency wallets and may even attempt to route the proceeds through a cryptocurrency exchange to add another layer of security (where the crypto will be swapped out for fiat currency).

After the NFT has been "traded" a few times, the corresponding coin is considered "clean." Additionally, while blockchain technology makes identifying the original selling wallet trivial, determining who truly controls the wallet is a whole different story. Because not all NFT markets adhere to Know Your Customer (KYC) and Anti-Money Laundering (AML) requirements, anyone can register an account, make a sale, and keep their identity disguised.

At other cases, criminals may use stolen accounts for major NFT markets to lend further credibility to a transaction by breaking into an account, make the deal, and then vanish.

Certain individuals employ the same procedure to artificially raise NFT prices. Each transaction between linked accounts presents a potential to boost the sale's value, so driving prices higher than they should be. Wash trading, as this technique is referred as, is another type of NFT manipulation that is linked to money laundering and other types of NFT fraud.

Is it Illegal to Use NFT for Money Laundering or Wash Trading?

Absolutely. Simply because we're discussing bitcoin assets does not mean that conventional financial regulations do not apply. Laundering the proceeds of crime in any manner is unlawful, as is wash trading in order to artificially boost the price of a product. The trouble is that with cryptocurrency and NFTs, it is much easier to conceal the paper trail.

Money Laundering Is Not Exclusive to the NFT

It is critical to understand that NFT money laundering is not a cryptocurrency-specific problem. Although NFTs have simplified the process of money laundering, criminals have historically utilised rare or valuable artwork (and other rare artefacts) to conceal funds and conduct unlawful activities. Swapping high-value objects is a reasonably straightforward method of transferring money between entities, made much better if the object's value can be adjusted to your liking (as with NFTs).

Additionally, given the staggering volume of NFT transactions that occur daily, the notion that the majority of NFT trading is used to facilitate illicit activity is a stretch. OpenSea, the leading NFT marketplace, has officially surpassed one million registered users. It is difficult to calculate the likelihood that the majority of these users are registered to assist with money laundering or other NFT-related fraud.

Alternatively, consider art forgery. Similarly to how forgery occurs in the world of art, it too occurs in the realm of NFT art. Indeed, the process of "forging" NFT art is exceedingly simple, as the majority of digital art can be copied with a few mouse clicks. Once saved to a computer, the stolen digital artwork is uploaded to and sold as an original on an NFT marketplace. Unfortunately, persons who have their digital artwork stolen and sold as an NFT have limited recourse. While digital art-related social media sites such as DeviantArt make an effort to track photographs published by its users, it is a time-consuming operation.

On that front, DeviantArt Protect searches millions of fresh NFT images each week across many NFT marketplaces and has notified its users of over 80,000 instances of stolen artwork. Nevertheless, the issue persists, and DeviantArt is a drop in the ocean of freely accessible digital art.

Money Laundering and NFT Go Hand in Hand—But Can We Stop Them?

If money laundering using NFTs is so straightforward, how can it be stopped?

Really, there is no clear answer. In the "real world," artists and authorities take extraordinary measures to track and secure artwork. The Art Loss Register keeps track of stolen and missing artworks worldwide and prohibits them from being sold at reputable auction houses. There has been some success in identifying cryptocurrency wallets used in earlier crypto-based heists, rendering the wallet storing the cryptocurrency unusable for currency transfers, therefore nullifying the benefits earned through theft.

Certain NFT marketplaces adhere to KYC and AML regulations, while others go above and above to guarantee that each developer is fully validated. However, for every NFT marketplace that takes these measures, another handful will not, allowing anyone to create an account and sell whatever they want, at whatever price they want.

NFTs are unquestionably here to stay. They are, however, likely to face more regulation as governments throughout the world strive to combat their use in money laundering, tax evasion, internet fraud, and other illicit activity.

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NFTs are reshaping the art world, allowing many artists to explore a new level of art-making. As artworks, NFTs have found their way to the world's most prestigious auction houses, where they have broken sales records.

However, NFTs have been a source of contention, with even the editors of Wikipedia — the world's largest online encyclopaedia – debating whether non-fungible tokens qualify as art.

The Wikipedia dispute began when editors began evaluating the list of the most expensive living artists' works, which included digital artist Beeple's NFTs but omitted another popular artist and NFT vendor Pak.

Beeple and Pak have both successfully sold non-fungible tokens, and their artworks are featured on a list of the most valuable non-fungible tokens.

"I see that Pak's Merge has been removed, but Beeple's Everyday Sale has been retained; shouldn't that also be removed from this list?" Additionally, this is an NFT sale; therefore, if Merge does not qualify, should Beeple? Additionally, the Beeple art is composed of numerous pieces and is not a singular work, as a Koons sculpture is. Although it is a collection of works - sold as a whole - does that constitute it a single work of art? If we include Beeple's Everydays on this list, other NFT works become eligible," one editor suggested.

"Generally, it is not about Wikipedia editors or individual contributors defining what is or is not art, but rather about consensus from third-party sources," another editor remarked.

The crypto community is outraged by Wikipedia's decision to exclude NFTs from art, with several tweets urging the NFT community to "rally and inform the Wikipedia editors that NFTs are, in fact, art!"

On the Other Hand

* NFTs are a general-purpose media. Some NFTs are works of art, while others are not.

* It is currently unclear whether or not NFTs will be classified as art on Wikipedia. However, the outcome is crucial, as Wikipedia is the primary source of information on the planet.

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While more Australians are trading cryptocurrencies, the majority still view it as a 'very dangerous' investment, which is why they dabble.

Despite stories of early adopters amassing riches through cryptocurrency trading, the majority of Australians who invest in the digital currency do so for the sake of entertainment.

According to a survey conducted late last year by consumer group Choosi, about one in ten Australians are currently dabbling in bitcoin.

However, the majority stated that they did it for "joy and excitement."

Boredom from Covid may possibly have had a role, as 60% of Australians who trade cryptocurrency did so within the last year.

It is also significantly more popular among younger generations than it is among older generations, and males are three times as likely as females to be previously invested.

According to the report, 19% of Gen Y are involved, compared to 6% of Gen X and 4% of Baby Boomers.

In general, 60% of Australians believe cryptocurrency is a "highly dangerous" investment, while 51% believe there is a lack of transparency and regulatory responsibility.

Others are more concerned with the prospective benefits, with 46% saying their investments offer long-term growth chances and 32% citing short-term profits.

Additionally, privacy of transactions (21%) and faith in crypto over traditional financial assets (16%) were prominent reasons.

Meanwhile, those of us who are still unfamiliar with cryptocurrencies are not alone — even among those who have invested money in it.

Approximately 38% of cryptocurrency investors claimed to having little or no understanding of how it all works.

"It is troubling that many investors do not completely understand the investments they are making and lack the risk tolerance necessary to invest in such turbulent markets," said Whitely Bradford, a financial literacy specialist at Griffith University.

"Cryptocurrency is a highly speculative asset class, and investors should perform their own research and seek professional advice before investing."

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According to Business Insider, Invesco strategist Paul Jackson predicted that Bitcoin's price might go below the $30,000 mark.

He sees a reasonable 30% likelihood of such a pessimistic scenario becoming reality.

Jackson compares the cryptocurrency market's extreme excitement to the period preceding the Great Depression:

The widespread promotion of bitcoin is reminiscent of stockbrokers' activities in the run-up to the 1929 crisis.

At press time, the largest cryptocurrency was trading just above the $42,000 mark on key spot exchanges.

The US Federal Reserve's hawkish tilt is one of the primary obstacles for Bitcoin at the moment. The central bank is likely to increase interest rates three times this year, putting downward pressure on risk assets such as stocks and cryptocurrencies.

On a more technical level, the largest cryptocurrency created a "death cross" recently. The dreaded chart pattern, which is said to portend a severe correction, is frequently a lagging trader, with some traders viewing it as a buying opportunity.

Despite some gloomy storylines, bullish price predictions abound. For example, Tom Lee of Fundstrat expects that Bitcoin might surpass $200,000 this year.

The cryptocurrency's hash rate continues to climb to new highs, indicating that miners are increasing their investment in the network. According to Max Keiser, this might push Bitcoin up to $220,000 this year.

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