This Week in Crypto – 8/8/22

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In RockItCoin’s effort to empower individuals in the cryptocurrency space, we have extracted top industry stories for your Weekly Digest. Cryptocurrency continues to dominate the news and here are some key happenings you should know.

Bitcoin Miners Continue to Increase Holdings Through Crypto Bear Market
Bitcoin miners continue to increase their holdings throughout the crypto winter, according to on-chain analytics company CryptoQuant. Over the last couple of months, hashrate difficulty has dropped significantly along with the price of Bitcoin, so miners were incentivized to hold on to their newly mined bitcoin until the price recovers. During the months of June and July, the total number of Bitcoins in miner’s wallets was approximately 1.8 million, more than any time since 2020, when Bitcoin’s price experienced a dramatic fall. However, there may be signs of hope as Bitcoin’s price seems to stabilize and miners start to sell their Bitcoin again.

New Data Shows 65% of BTC Has Not Moved in at Least a Year
Data from blockchain market analytics firm Glassnode shows that 65% of Bitcoin (about 12.35 million) in circulating supply has not moved addresses in at least a year. Additional data also mentions that 45% (8.55 million BTC) hasn’t moved in two years, and 38% (7.22 million BTC) hasn’t moved in three years. The main takeaway from this data is that many Bitcoin owners are managing to hold on to their crypto instead of selling, which isn’t a bad thing!

Data showing Bitcoin activity (Source: Glassnode)

Solana Wallets Drained of Over $8 Million in Large-Scale Hack

Thousands of people fell victim to a large-scale hack targeting approximately 8,000 internet-connected hot wallets with losses totaling over $8 million. While the cause isn’t very clear, it seems to be tied to Solana wallets from the web3 wallet Slope. Hackers were somehow able to approve transactions on behalf of the wallet owner without their consent, allowing all their funds to be drained in a matter of minutes. Large-scale attacks such as these serve as a reminder to be careful of where you store your crypto, and never share login information for your wallets!