Decentral Block Post

Bitcoin (BTC) stayed higher after a $17,000 liquidity grab on Dec. 9 as traders targeted further upside.

Bitcoin attempts new monthly high

Data from Cointelegraph Markets Pro and TradingView showed BTC/USD cooling volatility once more after hitting $17,300 on Bitstamp.

The pair had begun by taking liquidity at the Dec. 8 Wall Street open, this snowballing to see it challenge one-month highs from Dec. 5.

For those already betting on upward continuation, the move came as little surprise, with the coast still clear to add to the gains.

“The move to 18-19k $BTC continues,” popular trader Credible Crypto summarized.

The developers of bridging platform Ren protocol have warned users to unwrap their tokens and bridge them back to their native chains “ASAP,” or risk losing them, according to a Twitter thread from the team.

The team stated that mints on Ren will be disabled “shortly,” meaning that it will be impossible to deposit any assets onto the platform to bridge to other networks. In 30 days, “burns” or withdrawals will also be disabled.

The company behind the project, RenVM, had previously stated on Nov. 18 that they would be releasing a new version of the protocol, Ren 2.0, “in parallel” with the shutdown of the current one. This implied that the current bridged assets might still be usable after the shutdown of Ren 1.0.

However, this new announcement makes clear that current assets may not be usable in the newer version of the platform, so users may get these assets stuck in the platform if they don’t withdraw them soon.

Ren protocol users have relied on it to bridge assets since 2017. But in February, 2021, RenVM was acquired by Alameda Research. This led to a funding shortfall after Alameda filed for bankruptcy in November.

The total cryptocurrency market capitalization dropped 1.5% in the past seven days to rest at $840 billion. The slightly negative movement did not break the ascending channel initiated on Nov. 12, although the overall sentiment remains bearish and year-to-date losses amount to 64%.

Bitcoin (BTC) price dropped 0.8% on the week, stabilizing near the $16,800 level at 10:00 UTC on Dec. 8 — even though it eventually broke above $17,200 later on the day. Discussions related to regulating crypto markets pressured markets and the FTX exchange collapse limited traders' appetites, causing lawmakers to turn their attention to the potential impact on financial institutions and the retail investors' lack of protection.

On Dec. 6, the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) said it is "looking carefully" at decentralized finance (DeFi), while the agency's acting director, Himamauli Das, said the digital asset ecosystem and digital currencies are a "key priority area" for the agency. In particular, the regulator was concerned with DeFi's "potential to reduce or eliminate the role of financial intermediaries" that are critical to its AML and CFT efforts.

Hong Kong's legislative council approved a new licensing regime for virtual asset service providers. From June 2023, cryptocurrency exchanges will be subject to the same legislation followed by traditional financial institutions. The change will require stricter anti-money laundering and investor protection measures before being guaranteed a license of operation.

Meanwhile, Australian financial regulators are actively working on methods for incorporating payment stablecoins into the regulatory framework for the financial sector. On Dec. 8, the Reserve Bank of Australia published a report on stablecoins citing risks of disruptions to funding markets, increasing bank exposure and liquidity. The analysis highlighted the particular fragility of algorithmic stablecoins, noting the Terra-Luna ecosystem collapse.