LONDON (Bywire News) - This week, the crypto market saw some significant developments according to Bullish. The peak trade volume (24 hrs) on December 20, 2022 was $669,806,901 (39,868 BTC). Requests for information from US law enforcement and agencies are the highest worldwide from Q4, 2021 to Q3, 2022. The US received 4,736 requests, followed by the UK with 1,740 and Germany with 1,668. In addition, requests from regulators to exchanges rose by ~66% year-over-year.
In terms of NFTs, November saw the worst month for volumes year-to-date, declining by 90% from its January peak. Ethereum had the highest market share with over 78% in the past 30 days, while LooksRare and X2Y2 had the highest percentage of wash trade volume at 98% and 87%, respectively.
In the macro market, US equity markets had a tumultuous week. After the Federal Reserve hiked rates by 50bps on Wednesday, maintaining a dovish tone, the S&P 500, Dow, and Nasdaq Composite all closed on a lower note. The following day, the indices continued to dip for the fourth consecutive day. Tuesday saw some relief with the S&P 500, Dow, and Nasdaq Composite all rising slightly. On Thursday, the indices saw a strong rebound after consumer confidence data hit its highest level since April. However, the indices dipped again on Thursday, erasing two consecutive days of gains.
Other developments this week include two Ethereum whales transferring a total of nearly $30mn in ETH, Binance US winning the bid for Voyager Digital Ltd, five wallets linked to QuadrigaCX moving ~104 BTC, SBF signing his extradition papers, and FTX announcing that it may use legal means to reclaim political donations and contributions. In addition, Caroline Ellison and Gary Wang pleaded guilty to federal fraud charges and are cooperating with the Justice Department’s investigation, while a US federal judge granted the release of SBF on a $250mn pre-trial bond. Finally, Ankr Protocol confirms in its new blog post that the December hack was conducted by an employee of the project.
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