During a fruitful weekend last week, the cryptocurrency market managed to climb up to a price of $140 billion, with Ethereum leading the surge.
Coming out of a bear range, Bitcoin managed to pass its $4,000 price point.
Considering how volatile the market is in the past few weeks, it is safe to say that it did not come as a surprise that this stability would last no longer than a few days.
Currently, the market has once again declined to $130 billion, with major cryptocurrencies all in the red.
Bitcoin is priced under the $4,000 mark and has lost more than 4 percent of its value over a period of 24 hours.
Ethereum, the second largest coin according to market cap, faces even greater losses, falling to $139 from a solid value of over $150 during the small market upsurge in the past few days.
If this keeps up, Ethereum runs the risk of losing the second place on the market charts to Ripple (XRP) again.
A Single Person Owns over Half of All Dash Blocks
A single crypto wallet owner holds more than half of all dash mining blocks, a concerned Reddit user recently pointed out.
NiceHash, a popular cryptocurrency cloud mining marketplace, holds around 70 percent of the total hash rate of Dash, which by itself is unusual.
The mining awards go to four unknown addresses, three of which the Reddit user managed to connect, concluding that they are coming from the same entity.
In other words, this means the same person controls over 51 percent of all Dash blocks.
With these numbers, there is a large possibility for someone to perform a 51 percent attack.
Crypto Predictions: Can Litecoin Become the Preferred Currency for the Dark Web?
The crypto sphere has high expectations of Litecoin (LTC) for 2019. Some even predict that the cryptocurrency will grow significantly this year to the extent that it will compete with the market's most successful, Bitcoin.
Considering that LTC transactions are much faster than Bitcoin's, the fees are lower and the coin guarantees transparency, this isn't so difficult to imagine.
A further guarantee for this to happen can even be the dark web. Currently, Litecoin holds 30 percent of all transactions on the dark web.
Despite not being a privacy coin, something that the dark web community appreciates the most, Litecoin certainly has its advantages and has raised steam lately.
Father and Daughter Caught Managing Drug Deals on the Dark Web
Gregory Paul Green, 63, and his daughter, Brittany Green, 29, have been accused and face federal charges for running drug trafficking operations from their own home in Billings, Montana.
They were allegedly using the dark web to communicate with their customers and shipped the drugs through the mail, mostly in exchange for cryptocurrencies.
According to the U.S. District Court in Billings, earlier this month, authorities arrested the Greens after they raided their home and found large amounts of drugs, including Xanax, meth and ketamine.
They allegedly found carfentanil among the substances, which is a drug 5,000 more potent than heroin. They also discovered a methamphetamine laboratory in their basement.
As the Billings Gazette reports, in Gregory Green's room, the agents found a computer connected to the dark web, with the screen showing a Xanax sales, as well as paperwork that showed the Greens were using Bitcoin payments in their operations.
For now, both Gregory and Brittany Green are being held in custody with no bond.
Teen Accused of Running Drug Ring on the Dark Web
An 18-year-old Finnish man is under arrest for the suspicion of using the dark web to run a drug ring together with a group of several other people.
Allegedly the teenager went by the nickname "TeknoJeesus" and was one of the most active vendors on these markets.
Back in August of last year, the police seized drugs and envelopes ready to be distributed to buyers all across Finland.
They also found large amounts of drugs hidden in outdoor caches.
The police estimated that the suspects have sold drugs worth around 160,000 euros, mostly in cryptocurrency. At least 110,000 euros passed through Bitcoin wallets last year.
The case is a part of an investigation that covers a large drug scheme involving the dark web.
Currently, four people have been detained, three are behind bars, and eight more remain suspects for drug offenses.
---------------
That's it for our summary of this week's major crypto news headlines. This is the 28th post in our crypto news series. Catch up on the latest installments here: