After celebrating the 10th anniversary of its inception, the leading cryptocurrency on the market, Bitcoin (BTC), has stabilized.
This in turn caused the crypto market to recover from the mild losses from the previous week.
The new week started off in an upward trend, with the total market cap climbing over $220 billion.
Nevertheless, this did not last long, and in less than 24 hours Bitcoin once again fell under the $6,500 price point, causing the market to lose billions.
For several weeks now, Bitcoin is circulating within this price range with some occasional fluctuations. The coin's peak performance was last year in mid-December when it surpassed $20,000.
CNBC 's Crypto Trader host Ran NeuNer has revoked his prediction of Bitcoin reaching $50,000 by the end of this year.
NeuNer, in a tweet on February 1, 2018, stated that the leading cryptocurrency will finish the year at $50,000. However, in a more recent tweet, considering the current price, he ended up announcing the exact opposite.
The recent state of the crypto market is the reason why NeuNer changed his mind, he told Cointelegraph.
Charlie Shrem Sued by the Winklevoss Twins for Stealing Bitcoins
Charlie Shrem, the founder of BitInstant, is accused of stealing 5,000 Bitcoins from Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss, known as the first Bitcoin billionaires.
The Winklevoss brothers filed a lawsuit against Shrem, who is also their former business partner.
The 28-year-old crypto pioneer served time in federal prison on charges that he knowingly sold Bitcoins to people who used them in illicit activities on the now-defunct dark web market Silk Road.
After serving his sentence, Shrem enjoyed a luxurious life, acquiring millions of dollars in property, despite claiming that he went to prison with no money whatsoever.
According to The New York Times, the twins are suspecting that the accused was spending the money he owes them since 2012.
The 5,000 Bitcoins that Shrem allegedly stole six years ago are now worth more than $30 million.
Officials Selling Passports for Bitcoins Arrested in Bulgaria
Bulgarian officials were detained last week for violating the law by selling Bulgarian passports to nationals of other countries.
According to the Bulgarian Prosecutor General Ivan Geshev, the accused charged for the papers in Bitcoins. The police confirmed the existence of such evidence.
The authorities detained the head of the State Agency for Bulgarian Affairs abroad, Peter Haralampiev, together with Marco Stojov, an assistant.
Haralampiev and Stojov were selling these passports to citizens from nearby countries, including Macedonia, Moldova and Ukraine.
Cryptocurrency Scams Among SEC's Top Priorities
The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) will focus on reducing the number of scams related to cryptocurrencies.
According to their latest annual report [PDF], this is currently one of their top priorities. It comes at a time when cryptocurrency-related scams are increasing as a result of an enhanced public interest in this market.
ICOs are one of the areas that the SEC will put the main focus, besides cryptocurrencies and distributed ledger technology.
Only in 2018, the Division's Cyber Unit brought over 20 cases against ICO companies accused of misleading investors.
As the fiscal year is approaching towards an end, the division still has over 200 ongoing investigations.
The agency explains that protecting traditional retail investors is their central goal.
According to the annual report, such scams happen as a result of the industry's unregulated nature and the lack of technological knowledge.
The SEC is launching multiple initiatives with other partner agencies against the increased fraud activity in the cryptocurrency and distributed ledger technology sectors.
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That's it for our summary of this week's major crypto news headlines. This is the 19th post in our crypto news series. See previous installments here:
