New week - new PointPay Crypto Digest with a review of the most interesting and important news of the past week. This time the focus is on Bitcoin, which hit a new local high on the back of a Federal Reserve rate hike, new litigation involving FTX, as well as Dogecoin and Twitter tips.

Bitcoin renews local high at $24,157 amid rate hike

On Thursday, February 2, Bitcoin briefly broke through the $24,000 mark, rising to $24,157. On the same day, Bitcoin climbed back above $24,000 in the evening and then rolled back to $23,500.

The bitcoin price increase is related to the FRS meeting that took place on Wednesday, February 1st, where it was decided to raise the key interest rate by 25 basis points to

4,5% - 4,75% per annum.

This is currently the highest level since 2007. It has been achieved through eight consecutive rate hikes. At the same time, the latest increase was the mildest of all.

Speaking at a conference after the meeting, Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell said that the regulator is ready for further rate hikes. Although the economy is already showing signs of growth, further action may be needed to bring inflation back down to 2% (from the current 5.7%).

Ethereum price may fall after new Shanghai update

The price of ETH also jumped on the back of the rate hike, after which it fell slightly, eventually settling at $1,600. However, the price may change significantly after the release of the Shanghai update, which will allow users to withdraw their staked ETH.

With the possibility of ETH withdrawals, many investors may want to sell their holdings. This will lead to an oversaturation of the market and possibly a significant drop in price. Experts believe that the price of the asset could drop to $1,000 in the first wave and $750 if other ETH holders want to exit after the price drop.

However, many also predicted a serious price drop based on the previous The Merge update. However, ETH survived without much loss in price and is now trading at the same level as before the update.

Justin Sun, co-founder of Tron, announced a payment system for AI

In his Twitter account, Justin Sun made an announcement about a future payment system that will allow the use of smart contracts to store user requests and generated responses.

Also, thanks to the blockchain, users will be able to use AI services, such as ChatGPT from OpenAI, despite the possible censorship and restrictions. The neural networks will be able to be embedded directly into dapps and work within other applications.

An exact date for the implementation of the proposed system has not been given. However, in January 2023 the developers of OpenAI announced a paid version of the service, and probably the release of a new version of ChatGPT will be a starting point for the release of a payment system based on the Tron blockchain.

New FTX Bankruptcy Proceedings

While FTX is going through bankruptcy proceedings, the company is actively looking for ways to recover funds. One such avenue is through crypto lender Voyager Digital, which FTX paid about $446 million.

Prior to the bankruptcy filing, lender Voyager Digital demanded that Alameda Research repay all loans outstanding at the time. FTX paid $248.8 million on behalf of Alameda in September 2022, and then another $193.9 million in October.

Now, FTX's attorneys have filed a lawsuit against Voyager Digital seeking the return of all funds paid.

Twitter's DOGE tip bot has been suspended

Twitter used to have a separate account for sending tips to content creators on the social network. However, it was suspended some time ago.

Several large accounts dedicated to DOGE reported this, and users tried to find out the reasons from Twitter owner Elon Musk. However, he hasn't commented yet and the community believes that there was no reason to block the bot.

Meanwhile, some people connect the blocking with the recent changes in Twitter, which turn the social network into a payment system. Probably, the blocking of the bot is necessary to get the licenses and permissions, or the social network will simply replace the bot with the official way of sending DOGE.

Such a version is very likely, as Elon Musk repeatedly expressed his sympathy for Dogecoin, and also recently announced the introduction of Twitter transactions in fiat and cryptocurrencies.

Summary

The beginning of 2023 continues to excite and intrigue. The number of announcements related to the development of technologies and their integration into familiar systems increases by the day. The crypto winter that raged throughout 2022 finally seems to be receding as BTC and altcoins grow.

While ETH continues to introduce exciting and long-awaited updates, Tron is gaining momentum and actively expanding its ecosystem. Twitter, led by Elon Musk, is also expanding and introducing fiat and cryptocurrency payment methods, making them even more accessible and understandable to the average user.

The ongoing FTX case is still not over, and the new lawsuits are just another step in getting all the funds back to their rightful owners.

That was all the news for last week. Stay tuned as we will be back next week with the new PointPay Crypto Digest, where we will report on the development of this news and other interesting events.

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