'Groundhog Day' in Crypto as Bitcoin Again Plunges Following New Record

The world's largest crypto briefly rose above $70,000 Friday, but immediately tumbled about 5% to below $67,000

It's deja vu all over again for bitcoin (BTC) bulls, who for the second time this week barely had a few seconds to celebrate a surge to a new-all time high before prices quickly reversed sharply lower.

In the morning hours of U.S. trading, bitcoin took out the Tuesday record of about $69,200 and rose to $70,136, CoinDesk Bitcoin Index (XBX) data shows. But within seconds, selling took hold and less than one hour later, the price had tumbled about 5% to as low as $66,500.

Hong Kong launches Project Ensemble to support tokenization with wCBDC

 The HKMA’s latest CBDC project will look at tokenized deposits in tokenized asset transactions.

The Hong Kong Monetary Authority (HKMA) will launch a project to create a new wholesale central bank digital currency (wCBDC) to support tokenization. Dubbed Project Ensemble, it could result in the issuance of a “live” CBDC if there is sufficient interest, the HKMA said in an announcement.

The project will center around innovative infrastructure for interbank settlement using wCBDC. Its initial focus will be on tokenized deposits, that is, tokenized commercial bank money, for use in transactions with tokenized assets. The first step in the project will be the creation of a sandbox that will research and test:

Pig-butchering crypto scams made over $75b, University of Texas professor reveals

 A recent study conducted by University of Texas professors indicates that pig-butchering crypto scams may have siphoned off tens of billions of dollars.

A new study led by University of Texas finance professor John Griffin and graduate student Kevin Mei suggests that pig-butchering crypto scams may have drained over $75 billion from victims around the globe. The research, conducted over four years from January 2020 to February 2024, involved tracking the flow of funds from over 4,000 victims to the predominantly Southeast Asia-based scammers.

Pig-butchering scams typically begin with unsolicited text messages, enticing individuals into fraudulent crypto investments, and resulting in substantial financial losses.