Crypto Mining Stocks Eye Best Month in a Year Atop Bitcoin Jump

A Bitcoin rebound has put crypto mining stocks on course for their best monthly performance in at least a year, providing some respite from the debt and energy-price worries that pummeled the shares in 2022.

By:BLOOMBERG
| Updated on: Jan 17 2023, 16:56 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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Bitcoin fluctuated between gains and losses on Tuesday after advancing for 13 straight days through Jan. 16. (AFP)

A Bitcoin rebound has put crypto mining stocks on course for their best monthly performance in at least a year, providing some respite from the debt and energy-price worries that pummeled the shares in 2022.

The 20-member MVIS Global Digital Assets Mining Index is up 64% so far in January, outstripping Bitcoin's 28% advance. That's the gauge's best month since its inception at the end of 2021 and contrasts with last year's 88% drop.

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The Luxor Hashprice Index — which seeks to measure how much a miner can expect to earn from the computing power used for the Bitcoin network — is up 21% this year. That partly reflects bigger rewards from a higher Bitcoin price.

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Quite how long the surge in mining stocks can last is a topic of debate. Bitcoin remains some 70% below a high of almost $69,000 hit in 2021. Cash-strapped miners are reducing loans after gorging on debt-financing to expand during the boom and then hitting the buffers amid last year's digital-asset rout.

Core Scientific Inc., the largest Bitcoin miner by computing power, declared bankruptcy in December. Some like Riot Platforms Inc. and Bitfarms Ltd. started selling coin reserves last year to boost liquidity.

“It appears more attractive to start a new Bitcoin mining venture than to try to pick the bottom in many of these listed stocks right now,” said Matthew Sigel, head of digital-asset research at fund manager VanEck.

Sigel cited the “substantial” debt levels at many existing miners, and the sharp slide in the price of Bitcoin mining rigs, as justification for his position.

For now, Bitfarms is sitting on a more than 140% jump in January, while Marathon Digital Holdings Inc. has climbed over 120%. Hive Blockchain Technologies Ltd. has also more than doubled in the period.

Riskier investments like crypto have rallied this year on bets that debilitating interest-rates hikes are coming to an end as inflation cools. Any shift in that prevailing market narrative could see some of those gains quickly reverse.

Bitcoin fluctuated between gains and losses on Tuesday after advancing for 13 straight days through Jan. 16, a winning streak rare for its length. The world's largest token by market value was trading at about $21,200 as of 1:30 p.m. in Tokyo.

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First Published Date: 17 Jan, 16:51 IST
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