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Bitcoin has continued its good run of form in 2023, hitting a four-month high over the weekend, just above $23,000. 

The world’s largest cryptoasset began the week trading around $21,000 and saw little movement until Friday when a fresh rally saw the price kick higher. The price has since settled in a new range around $22,500 where the cryptoasset trades this morning.

Ether meanwhile suffered more price volatility over last week, beginning around $1,550 before declining to $1,500 midweek. Like BTC however, the price surged at the back end of last week, peaking above $1,650 on Saturday. This morning ETH is trading just below $1,625.

While no bull run is confirmation of wider trends, the positive movement of crypto has coincided with receding fears over macro trends in inflation and economic performance in major economies. Investors will be watching central bank activity coming up in February with interest, but the pivot point many have been looking for could be in as inflation expectations moderate for the year ahead. 
 

Bank of Spain to launch stablecoin project

The Bank of Spain has given permission to launch a pilot project of a euro-backed stablecoin, led by fintech firm MONEI. The project will allow users to issue their own stablecoins with every token backed by euro deposits held with major financial institutions BBVA and Caixabank. 

The project is the next in what is becoming an increasingly long line of stablecoin test programs and is further evidence that financial institutions see the relevance of the technology among the wider crypto ecosystem and even the broader financial system. 

Stablecoins prove a key bridge between fiat and crypto financial infrastructure and allow users to hold their assets digitally while retaining a stable profile backed by traditional currencies. Stablecoins have the potential to make digital payments cheaper, faster, and more secure transactions, but much of the technology is still in exploratory phases of development. 
 

Could “stealth addresses” be coming to Ethereum?

Ethereum founder Vitalik Buterin has published a blog that dives into the topic of “stealth addresses.” Buterin considers the difficulty of their implementation and also questions why they might be useful. 

One of the major features of cryptoassets is the relative transparency by which transactions are made. Even if you don’t know who owns a particular wallet, you can see transactions in and out of that wallet on any given blockchain if you know where to look.

Buterin’s proposal over stealth addresses could fundamentally alter this and provide a shroud of secrecy to a major mainstream platform in Ethereum. Whether this is desirable or not depends on your perspective. Regulators and law enforcement have become much better at blockchain forensics in recent years to crack down on criminal activity. But for those who don’t want their activities traced, it could be a boon.
 

Crypto ransomware attacks fall

The value of crypto-ransomware attacks went into decline for the first time since 2018 according to data from Chainalysis. Some $457 million was taken by ransomware attackers in 2022, down from $766 million in 2021. 

Far from a decline in attacks, Chainalysis believes this chiefly comes down to victims increasingly refusing to pay out ransomware attackers. Changes in the way ransomware payments are regulated have a major part to play in this with those that pay potentially liable for breaching rules over sanctions.

Although crypto continues to suffer from such attacks and a number of other scam issues, this is inherent in any financial ecosystem and is unfortunately only avoidable with robust security among institutions, awareness among users, and proactive regulation that protects market participants from harm. The shift in regulatory oversight is underway this year and with it, hope for higher levels of protection from criminal losses in the crypto community.

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