Forbes - Whale spotting 🐳

CryptoCodex


	Good Tuesday morning. Billy Bambrough here with what's driving the day in the world of bitcoin and crypto. 📧 Thank you for reading CryptoCodex! I’d love to hear your feedback, ideas and tips. Email me directly at billy@billybambrough.com.


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24-hour crypto market snapshot

Bitcoin (+14%)

$43,854

Ethereum (+10%)

$2,913

Luna (+25%)

$92.76

Avalanche (+18%)

$86.44

Marching to a different drum 🥁


	Cryptocurrency prices have rocketed higher over the last 24 hours even as equity markets come under renewed pressure due to global sanctions on Russia. The bitcoin price has surged back over $40,000, hitting a high of almost $45,000—a 15% increase on this time yesterday. Bitcoin is nowhere near the strongest performer among major cryptocurrencies, however. Terra's luna, designed to stabilize the protocol's stablecoins, and ethereum rival avalanche are both outpacing it, up 25% and 18% respectively. Luna's price has almost doubled over the last week and it's now the seventh-largest cryptocurrency by value, according to CoinMarketCap—pushing cardano and solana down the top ten. Ethereum itself is up 10% and posied to break above $3,000 per ether. Good to know: Bank of America sees no crypto winter given user adoption and developer activity growth

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Sanctions sting 🦂



	Russian ministers during a video conference meeting at the Russian National Defence Management Center yesterday. Vadim Savitsky/TASS


	Putin the pariah: Global sanctions against Russia have hit hard after a slow start last week with companies around the world following countries in piling pressure on Russian president Vladimir Putin. Bloomberg has put together a full list of the companies cutting ties with Russia. Mastercard and Visa blocked a number of Russian institutions from their payment networks yesterday while money transfer company Wise has pulled the plug on its services in Russia. Crypto crackdown: Meanwhile, the Biden administration has asked crypto exchanges to help ensure that Russians and Russian companies aren’t using virtual currencies to avoid sanctions, Bloomberg reported, citing people familiar with direct knowledge of the matter. Genie out of the bottle: The Israeli government has ordered the seizure of crypto wallets in bid to block Hamas funding, The Block reports. Whale of a time: The number of blockchain wallet addresses with more than 1,000 bitcoin—worth some $43 million—has surged over the last few days, according to data tracked by analytics site Coin Metrics. The figure increased by nearly 5% to a total of 2,226 on February 28, a level not seen since June 2021. Priming the pump: Veteran investor Mark Mobius said the recent rally in bitcoin can be attributed to Russians buying into the cryptocurrency. "I would say that’s the reason why bitcoin has shown strength now—because the Russians have a way of getting money out, getting their wealth out," Mobius, founding partner of Mobius Capital Partners, told CNBC. The bitcoin price surge put bitcoin ahead of Russia's ruble for the first time, according to data from FiatMarketCap. Read the full story on Forbes. Swift exit: Russia's central bank governor has said that its global payments will continue to function despite the SWIFT ban and Russia's SPFS, an internally-developed payments system, will replace SWIFT. Meanwhile, local media reports say the Russian government is working on a "one world" digital currency for global trade. Now read this: War in the time of crypto

BitConnect Ponzi founder vanishes 🕵️


	💸 BitConnect founder Satish Kumbhani, who was last week charged criminally by the U.S. Department of Justice for his role in the 2016 $2.4 billion Ponzi scheme, has disappeared, according to a Coindesk report. 📜 "The [Securities and Exchange] Commission [which separately sued Kumbhani in September 2021] did not know the whereabouts of Kumbhani, an Indian citizen, at the time it filed this action, and BitConnect is an unincorporated entity the Commission must serve through its manager, Kumbhani," said senior trial counsel Richard Primoff in a legal filing. 🔐 Kumbhani is charged with conspiracy to commit wire fraud, wire fraud, conspiracy to commit commodity price manipulation, operation of an unlicensed money transmitting business and conspiracy to commit international money laundering. He could face up to 70 years in prison. Now read this: Israeli judge lifts gagging order revealing Celsius Network CFO’s arrest

	Billy Bambrough
	Forbes Senior Contributor

I am a journalist with significant experience covering technology, finance, economics, and business. I write about how bitcoin, crypto and blockchain can change the world.

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