• Donald Trump vows to ‘never allow’ creation of a CBDC in the United States
United States presidential candidate and former President Donald Trump has vowed to “never allow” the Federal Reserve to create a central bank digital currency (CBDC) in the country.
The pledge came during a campaign speech in Portsmouth, New Hampshire, on Jan. 17, where the former president said, “Tonight I’m making another promise to protect Americans from government tyranny.”
“I will never allow the creation of a central bank digital currency.”
• Laser-Eyed Franklin Templeton Sets Sights on Ethereum, Solana After Bitcoin
Last week, Franklin Templeton joined other major firms, including BlackRock, VanEck, Ark Invest, and Fidelity, in having their spot Bitcoin ETFs approved by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.
Franklin Templeton expressed admiration for the Solana blockchain, calling Solana Labs co-founder Anatoly Yakovenko’s vision of it as a single atomic state machine a “powerful use case.”
“On Solana, we see Anatoly’s vision of a single atomic state machine as a powerful use case of decentralized blockchains, lowering information asymmetry,” they said. “And we are impressed by all the activity seen on Solana in Q4 2023.”
• Bitcoin ETFs top 3X daily volume of all 500 ETFs launched in 2023 combined
The total volume across 10 spot Bitcoin exchange-traded funds (ETFs) on Jan. 16 has, on the same day, outpaced the total volume for all 500 ETFs launched in 2023 more than three times over.
Yahoo Finance data compiled by Cointelegraph shows the 10 recently approved spot Bitcoin ETFs generated just over $1.8 billion in total volume on Jan. 16, with funds offered by Grayscale, BlackRock and Fidelity accounting for $1.6 billion of the total.
In comparison, the combined Jan. 16 trading volume for all 500 ETFs launched in the United States in 2023 at just $450 million, according to Bloomberg ETF analyst Eric Balchunas.
BlackRock’s iShares Bitcoin Trust emerged as the clear leader in terms of attracting net inflows, with more than $497 million over the past three days.
• Ethereum looks to end 18-month losing streak vs. Bitcoin
Having made swift advances against Bitcoin since last week, Ether passed 0.06 BTC before consolidating near that level, its highest since April 2022.
“This consolidation is occurring at a resistance trendline, above the 200-day moving average cloud,” Caleb Franzen, senior analyst at Cubic Analytics, wrote in part of his latest X analysis.
An accompanying chart showed the trendline in place as resistance since September 2022.
Referencing other data, Franzen earlier this week predicted that ETH/USD would continue to beat BTC/USD going forward.
• XRP price falls near critical support level as Bitcoin and crypto market correct
XRP price has dropped 10% in January as investors book profits and broader bearish sentiment takes over the cryptocurrency market.
XRP price now appears primed for further losses in the short term, primarily due to a classic bearish pattern.
On Jan. 3, XRP broke below the support line of a descending triangle at $0.5934, risking a 17% correction.
Now, XRP has been trading sideways below the technical chart pattern, and this bearish pattern forms when the price consolidates inside a triangle defined by a series of lower highs and relatively equal lows.
• Manta Network Hit by ‘DDoS’ Attack Amid Token Issuance
Upstart blockchain Manta Network was hit by a distributed denial of service (DDoS) attack as it issued its MANTA token, leading to longer-than-expected withdrawal times and a slow network.
“The network has accumulated a large queue of recent transactions,” Manta developers said in an X post. “This is leading to longer transaction times and impacts on gas fees. We are aware of this issue and are working to resolve it.”
DDoS is a common attack vector in which the attacker floods a server with internet traffic to prevent users from accessing connected online services and sites.
The attack occurred close to Manta’s initial token issuance event, co-founder Kenny Li said in a post. He noted communication between the blockchain and native applications was “severely limited” but that all funds were safe and the blockchain operated normally otherwise.
Concluding Notes:
- Donald Trump vows to ‘never allow’ creation of a CBDC in the United States
- Franklin Templeton Sets Sights on Ethereum and Solana
- Bitcoin ETFs top 3X daily volume
- Ethereum looks to end 18-month losing streak vs. Bitcoin
- XRP price falls near critical support level
- Manta Network Hit by ‘DDoS’ Attack
