This Week in Crypto – Milestones, Guilty Pleas, and Rug Pulls
By Mark Hunter
16 hours agoSun Dec 08 2024 08:00:52
Reading Time: 2 minutes
This week in the crypto world, we saw Bitcoin cross $100,000, Alex Mashinsky plead guilty to fraud, and the Hawk Tuah girl in trouble over her memecoin.
Bitcoin Hits $100,000 Milestone
Bitcoiners celebrated the biggest milestone in its history this week as it crossed $100,000 for the first time. The final push over the threshold came thanks in part to Donald Trump naming a pro-crypto Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) head and Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell compared it to gold, both of which helped the nearly 16-year-old cryptocurrency to shoot $10,000 to $104,000.
The breakthrough, and the positive comments from Powell especially, have led many to believe that Bitcoin can now look to tackle gold’s $17 trillion market cap, an 8.5x increase.
Alex Mashinsky Pleads Guilty
Alex Mashinsky, the founder of cryptocurrency lender Celsius Network, this week pleaded guilty to fraud charges in a Manhattan federal court. Mashinsky admitted to deceiving investors about the company’s health and using customer funds to inflate the value of Celsius’s digital token, CEL.
The former CEO admitted in court that “I know what I did was wrong and I want to do what I can to make it right,” the answer to which could be serving 30 years in prison and forfeiting $48 million. Celsius filed for bankruptcy in mid-2022 after freezing customer withdrawals amid a crash in cryptocurrency markets, with the resultant bankruptcy revealing a staggering $1 billion deficit.
Straight Tuah Jail for HAWK Creators?
The creators of the HAWK token, named after Haliey Welch, known as the “Hawk Tuah Girl,” have been accused of a rug pull after the memecoin collapsed within hours. The coin was launched on December 4, quickly surging to a market cap of $490 million before plummeting by 95% within hours.
This rapid decline has led to accusations of insider trading and a “rug pull,” though Welch and her team assert they have not sold any tokens and aimed for a long-term project. Famed crypto critic Coffeezilla has taken up the charge, accusing he founders of pre-mining up to 96% of the coins which they sold at the top, dumping on new entrants.
