Bitcoin Hovers in Sight of Lowest Level Since 2020 as US Fed Looms | Tech News

Bitcoin Hovers in Sight of Lowest Level Since 2020 as US Fed Looms

Cryptocurrency investors waited with bated breath for a US Fed policy decision that likely holds the key to whether Bitcoin can avert a massive drop last seen during the pandemic.

By:BLOOMBERG
| Updated on: Sep 21 2022, 18:03 IST
This malicious Firefox add-on stole thousands of dollars in cryptocurrency
Bitcoin
1/6 A particular malicious add-on for Firefox, that goes by the name Safepal Wallet, has managed to scam users by stealing money from them and managed to live on the Mozilla add-ons store for seven months before getting detected and removed. (Pixabay)
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2/6 Safepal is essentially a cryptocurrency wallet application that is capable of holding more than 10,000 types of assets, including Ethereum, Bitcoin, Litecoin, etc. However, Safepal is an official smartphone app that is available for Apple and Android both. There are no known “authentic” Safepal browser extensions. (BleepingComputer)
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3/6 According to a post shared by a user who goes by the name Cali on the Mozilla Support forum, within a few hours of installing and logging in to the Safepal Wallet extension with their real Safepal credentials, they saw their wallet balance drop to $0 from $4,000.  (Mozilla Support Forum )
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4/6 While investigating Safepal Wallet, BleepingComputer came across the phishing domain used by the add-on and this webpage was also listed as the "support site" link on the fake add-on's home page: https://safeuslife.com/tool/. WHOIS records indicate the this phishing site was registered in January this year via Namecheap. And BleepingComputer reported that at the time of them filing this report, the webpage is still live and it instructs people to key in their "12-word Backup Phrase in the correct order to pair your SafePal Wallet". (BleepingComputer )
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5/6 Once the recovery phrase is entered and the form is submitted, the page refreshes without any noticeable response and the recovery phrase is sent to the attacker. A stolen recovery phrase can give attackers control over your wallet along with the ability to access and transfer funds. (Pixabay)
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6/6 Five days after Cali publicly reported the incident, a Mozilla spokesperson responded to say that they were investigating the issue and the page for Safepal Wallet has since been removed by Mozilla. The Mozilla add-ons store now has one-star reviews posted by some users that are warning others to not download “Safepal Wallet”. (BleepingComputer )
Bitcoin
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Ahead of the Federal Reserve policy decision, Bitcoin experts believe that more than 100 basis point hike can send the cryptocurrency back to the low levels of 2020s. (REUTERS)

Cryptocurrency investors waited with bated breath for a Federal Reserve policy decision that likely holds the key to whether Bitcoin can avert a drop to levels last seen when the pandemic was raging globally.

The largest token was little changed at $19,000 as of 11:44 a.m. in Singapore on Wednesday, while other major coins like Ether, Solana and Avalanche were also steady. A drop of more than 7% in Bitcoin -- something that can happen in a few seconds in digital assets -- would send it back to 2020 prices.

Markets could breathe a temporary sigh of relief if the Fed raises borrowing costs by three-quarters of a percentage point again as expected and avoids becoming even more hawkish. But a bigger, one-percentage-point increase to fight inflation might heap pressure on riskier assets by imperiling liquidity.

“If the FOMC delivers less than a 100 basis points hike, it would make sense to see a small relief rally -- this could be quite large if the FOMC were to deliver less than a 75 basis points increase, although this seems highly unlikely,” said John Toro, head of trading at digital-asset exchange Independent Reserve.

The MVIS CryptoCompare Digital Assets 100 Index is down this week, taking its losses for 2022 to about 60% compared with 21% for global stocks. The correlation between equities and Bitcoin is elevated and close to a record, a sign of how assets are being tossed around by common macro factors.

“If we do end up seeing 100 basis points, we might see quite the volatility” in virtual coins following the Fed announcement, Laura Vidiella del Blanco, vice president of business development and strategy at LedgerPrime, said on Bloomberg Television.

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First Published Date: 21 Sep, 18:03 IST
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