Image Source: Pexels
Crypto prices fluctuated heavily over the week as Bitcoin price swung to above $69K and back under $65K before regaining some ground to trade above $67K on Friday evening.Most altcoins swung sharply too, with meme coins seeing huge gains before paring them.Meanwhile, in the broader industry, top news over the week included a hackers attack on a US government wallet to steal $20 million in crypto.
Crypto news stories
Binance
One of the major crypto news this week is the release of Binance executive Tigran Gambaryan by the Nigerian authorities.Gambaryan, a US citizen, has been detained for almost eight months having been arrested in late February.Binance CEO Richard Teng announced Gambaryan’s release.
Ripple
Also to make crypto headlines is US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and Ripple’s filing of appeals in the ongoing legal battle. Ripple execs and legal representatives maintain XRP is not a security and the SEC hasn’t challenged that.Ripple co-founder donating $10 million to Kamala Harris’ campaign also attracted significant attention.
US government crypto wallet hacked
The hack that saw an attacker steal $20 million from a US government wallet is also a story many will follow in coming weeks.However, in a quick turn of events, the hacker returned $19.2 million to the wallet.Meanwhile, US prosecutors have outlined plans to offer a plea deal to Eric Council Jr., the man recently arrested for his hack on SEC’s X account in January.
According to ZachXBT, the US government address attacker transferred $19.2 million (2,408 ETH and 13.19 million aUSDC) back to the hacked US government address. This amount does not include funds that have been transferred to exchanges (Switchain, HitBTC, N Exchange).… https://t.co/TCPkyBLLGU
— Wu Blockchain (@WuBlockchain) October 25, 2024
Stripe, Tether, MicroStrategy, Kraken
Stripe acquired stablecoin firm Bridge for $1.1 billion, a move that solidifies the company’s re-entry into crypto.In another development, Tether unveiled a statue of Bitcoin creator Satoshi Nakamoto in Lugano, Switzerland.Tether CEO Paolo Ardoino, meanwhile, maintained his company isn’t looking to go public.The crypto community also engaged heavily on MicroStrategy founder Michael Saylor’s offer to help Microsoft adopt a Bitcoin strategy.Saylor says his BTC will go to civilization when he’s gone.Elsewhere, Kraken hit the news with reports that the crypto exchange was looking to launch its own layer-2 network.
Crypto price wrap
Bitcoin holds above $67k
As highlighted above, BTC price rose sharply earlier in the week. Data shows bulls tested highs of $69,227 on October 21.However, rejection at the resistance level saw prices fall to lows of $65,440 on October 23 before climbing to above $67,000 again.In the past 24 hours, BTC price has ranged between $65.8K and $68.8K, and hovered around $67K at the time of writing.
Meme coins outshone top altcoins
This week saw several meme coins spike to new all-time highs, including Popcat (POPCAT) and cat in a dogs world (MEW).Dog-themed tokens also came to the party as did PolitiFi coins ahead of the US election.However, these meme coins have also slipped significantly as traders take profits. POPCAT is among the top losers with -17% in 24 hours.
SAFE, Raydium (RAY) and APE among top gainers
While several altcoins are looking to reclaim key price levels after notable downside pressure, Safe (SAFE), Raydium (RAY) and ApeCoin (APE) are among those to hold onto gains as the week comes to an end.SAFE price jumped 16% in 24 hours and 63% in the past week to lead the top 100 coins by market cap.Elsewhere, RAY was up 32% this past week and APE traded over 58% higher to rank third-best performer over the week.This is in the list of largest 100 cryptocurrencies by market cap.Top of the leaderboard is meme coin Goatseus Maximus (GOAT).More By This Author:Bitcoin Cash Price Jumps 15% As Bitcoin Surges Above $66,000 Crypto Wrap: XRP Dips Amid SEC’s Appeal But Flare, Aptos See GainsSolana Sees $7.6 Million In ETP Inflows Despite SOL Price Weakness
