As Bitcoin investors eye a potential “January effect,” where financial assets often rally as portfolios are reset, crypto.news takes a look at recent headlines as part of our weekly recap. No ‘Santa Claus rally’ for Bitcoin Bitcoin ( BTC ) retreated to $94,830, down by over 12% from its highest level this month as the Santa Claus rally failed to materialize. According to CoinGecko , Bitcoin had a volume of $22 billion on Sunday, Dec. 29, down from $41 billion a day earlier. Historical data shows mixed January performance for Bitcoin, with gains in only six of the last 10 years, including a modest 0.62% rise this year. February, by contrast, has been a more consistent month for Bitcoin, recording losses only twice during the same period. Terraform, FTX updates Montenegrin Justice Minister Bojan Božović has signed an order to extradite Terraform Labs founder Do Kwon to the United States rather than South Korea, local media Vijesti reports. FTX executive Ryan Salame’s prison sentence has been reduced by over a year, with his release now scheduled for March 2031. Salame began serving his 7.5-year sentence in October for his role in the exchange’s collapse. Cambodia embraces stablecoins, Japan shies away from Bitcoin The National Bank of Cambodia has authorized commercial banks and payment firms to provide services for Category 1 crypto assets, including stablecoins like USDC and USDT, while maintaining restrictions on unbacked cryptocurrencies. Japan’s government officially responded to Senator Hamada’s queries, declaring no plans to include Bitcoin in its foreign exchange reserves, citing volatility concerns and limited understanding. You might also like: DeFi proponents to fight US IRS tax code MicroStrategy extends weekly buying spree Michael Saylor’s MicroStrategy enlarged its Bitcoin coffer by $561 million. The business intelligence company — the biggest corporate holder of Bitcoin — ranks as the best-performing cryptocurrency stock in 2024, with its share price climbing up to 402% on the year. Legal drama, network updates, NFT trends Solana ( SOL ) Labs co-founder Stephen Akridge faces legal action from his ex-wife, Elisa Rossi. The legal charges are based on allegations of withholding staking rewards worth “millions of dollars” following their divorce agreement. The BONK community celebrated “BURNmas” with a massive token burn, destroying 1.69 trillion tokens valued at over $51 million, representing 1.8% of the total supply. Total NFT sales volume for the last seven days has also seen a 50% drop . Russian mining restrictions Russian authorities will implement crypto mining restrictions or outright bans from Jan. 1, 2025 to March 15, 2031. Experts say the crypto mining ban is due to energy shortages and the subsidized price at which bandwidth is available in some markets. Binance backs Usual In the final week of December, Crypto Fundraising data showed that sector investments totaled nearly $120 million for the week. Binance Labs and Kraken Ventures led the $10 million Series A funding round for Usual, a decentralized fiat-backed real-world assets stablecoin issuer. Read more: Hamster Kombat to debut layer-2 network on TON after failed airdrop
