- It was on January 3, 2009, that a person or a group of people known as Satoshi Nakamoto launched the main bitcoin network, mining a genesis block with 50 BTC. Shortly before the network was launched, on October 31, 2008, the white paper of the first cryptocurrency was published. The first bitcoin transaction took place on January 12, 2009: Satoshi Nakamoto sent 10 BTC to Hal Finney. A version of Bitcoin_0.1 software was published three days earlier.
Nakamoto's identity and motives for creating bitcoin are still a mystery that the crypto community and beyond are trying to unravel. One of the probable reasons for the creation of bitcoin was the global financial crisis that broke out in 2007-2008, accompanied by the collapse of the largest investment banks, a widespread decline in production, falling demand and prices for raw materials, rising unemployment and active state intervention in the economy.

- The Italian Parliament approved amendments to the 2023 budget, which involve the introduction of a 26% tax on capital gains received from the trading of digital assets. The tax will be levied if there is a profit of more than €2,000 ($2,145), and citizens will be obliged to inform tax authorities about such investments.
The UK, by contrast, has offered tax breaks for non-residents and foreign investors when buying digital assets through local investment managers or brokers. The new rule came into effect on January 1, 2023 and is part of Prime Minister Rishi Sunak's plans to make the UK the world's crypto powerhouse.

- Sam Bankman-Fried, 30, founder of cryptocurrency exchange FTX, which collapsed in November, causing billions of dollars in losses to investors, pleads not guilty. He faces eight criminal charges, including electronic fraud, conspiracy to launder money, and campaign finance violations, for which he could spend decades in prison.
According to Reuters, the court has set the first date for the Bankman-Fried trial on October 2, 2023. In the meantime, the defendant has been released to his parents' home in California on $250 million bail. Parents are two of the four people who have paid bail. Lawyers said they were threatened with harm, so two more names have not yet been disclosed.

- The past 12 months have been particularly difficult for the cryptocurrency market, which has lost more than 70% of its total capitalization. However, many analysts seem to be quite optimistic about the short-term outlook for BTC.
Tim Draper, third-generation venture capitalist and co-founder of Draper Fisher Jurvetson, believes bitcoin will be worth $250,000.
It will take a rally of about 1,400% upside to reach this cosmic mark. Draper is also positive about the halving, which should take place in 2024, believing that this event will have a big impact on the price of the main cryptocurrency.
Another expert with a positive outlook is Carol Alexander, professor of finance at the University of Sussex. She had been prone to BTC falling to $10,000 in 2022 in her previous forecast. This did not happen, although the forecast almost came true.
However, the financier predicts now that the first cryptocurrency can reach $50,000 in 2023. The professor believes that the catalyst will be the influx of more “dominoes” that fell apart after the collapse of the FTX exchange. “2023 will be a managed bull market, not a bubble,” she writes. - We will not see a jump in the rate, as before. But we will see a month or two of stable trending prices interspersed with periods of limited range, and perhaps a couple of short-term crashes.”
Alistair Milne, IT Director of the Altana Digital Currency Fund, is also among those who gave several high-profile forecasts about the bitcoin rate. In his opinion, “We should see bitcoin at least $45,000 by the end of 2023.” That being said, Milne warns that “if central banks decide to allow a higher inflation target […] to avoid a recession, hard assets could become fashionable again.” He also tweeted that BTC should reach $150,000-300,000 by the end of 2024, “and this is probably the peak of opportunity for the bulls.”
Another expert joining the bull train is Eric Wall, Chief Investment Officer at cryptocurrency hedge fund Arcane Assets. It is also called the "altcoin killer". However, his forecast for 2023 looks much more modest: the expert believes that the bitcoin rate may exceed $30,000. Eric Wall often bases his comments on the BTC Rainbow Price Chart, an analytical tool created by BlockchainCenter. And this time he said that the $15,400 exchange rate was the bottom for bitcoin.
Unlike previous forecasts, strategists at the British international financial conglomerate Standard Chartered believe that the BTC rate may, on the contrary, fall to $5,000. In their opinion, “more and more crypto companies and exchanges are facing insufficient liquidity, leading to further bankruptcies and the collapse of investor confidence in digital assets.”

- Luke Dashjr (alias Luke-Jr), one of the main developers of the first cryptocurrency core, who has made more than 200 proposals to the bitcoin code since 2011, is now the victim of hackers. Luke-Jr claims to have lost "virtually" all of his BTC in a brazen hack that took place on New Year's Eve. The programmer said in a January 1 message that hackers gained access to his Pretty Good Privacy (PGP) key, a common security method. As a result, more than 215 BTC ($3.6 million) were stolen.
Dashjr said he had "no idea" how the attackers got access to his key. He only noticed the recent hack after receiving emails from Coinbase and Kraken about login attempts, he said.

- Dante Disparte, Head of Strategic Development at Circle, shared his opinion on the developments in the cryptocurrency sector over the past year and the prospects for the industry in 2023. According to the specialist, digital assets and blockchain will still remain indispensable tools of the economy, despite the terrible events in 2022, which indicate not a crypto winter, but a whole “ice age” for the industry. However, despite these setbacks, many major banks and financial institutions will continue to introduce cryptocurrencies into their product lines. As for the bankruptcy of several crypto-lenders and the collapse of the FTX exchange, these events, according to Dispart, can be a boon for the industry, as they lay the foundation for more responsible and affordable investments.

- Rich Dad Poor Dad author Robert Kiyosaki revealed that he is buying more bitcoin (BTC) at current prices. Kiyosaki explained that, unlike altcoins, bitcoin is likely to be able to dodge the hammer of regulators: “Why? Because bitcoin is classified as a commodity much like gold, silver and oil. Most crypto tokens are classified as securities, and the US SEC will crush most of them.”

- As it turns out, Darren Nguyen, a 25-year-old crypto trader who traded nearly $2 billion worth of crypto in 2021, was running his crypto empire from the comfort of his parents' home in Sydney. This is evidenced by an article published on January 2 in The Australian. Until now, the family has kept quiet about the crypto business Nguyen runs, and his mother refused to answer the question of whether she knew about what the child was doing under her roof.


Notice: These materials are not investment recommendations or guidelines for working in financial markets and are intended for informational purposes only. Trading in financial markets is risky and can result in a complete loss of deposited funds.

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