Crypto News Digest by U.Today

Here are the top four news stories presented to you by U.Today.

XRP can’t be confiscated by government, says ex-Ripple director

After dispelling rumors about a government buyback of XRP last week, Matt Hamilton, Ripple’s former director of developer relations, has taken to Twitter to refute yet another speculation circulating within the crypto community. This time, it concerns a possible confiscation of the XRP token by the government. In his recent Twitter thread, Hamilton names three reasons why such a scenario is impossible. First, XRP is decentralized and cannot be seized without forcing key holders. Second, if the government needs a token for its own use, it would be easier to create its own crypto (CBDC). Third, if the government wants to prevent others from using XRP, it would kill the token’s value and utility, and XRP would be replaced by a fork.

Peter Schiff urges Bitcoin hodlers to sell ahead of CPI release

Yesterday, Peter Schiff, a prominent Bitcoin critic and supporter of gold, prompted investors holding Bitcoin to sell ahead of the release of the December Consumer Price Index (CPI) report. According to Schiff, this is a perfect opportunity to drop BTC as it is trading above $18,000, its highest level in three weeks. At the moment of writing, Bitcoin is changing hands at $18,892, per CoinMarketCap. Meanwhile, the CPI report has been released as scheduled; data provided by the report shows that consumer prices decreased by 0.1% from the previous month, meeting economists’ expectations.

Shiba Inu (SHIB) burn rate spikes 937% as price is close to “burning” zero

Per Shibburn data, over the previous 24 hours, the burn rate of Shiba Inu has surged by almost 1,000% as the Shib Army has managed to incinerate 23 million SHIB tokens. With the launch of the Shibarium Layer 2 protocol approaching, meme coin supporters expect the SHIB burn rate to jump even higher. In the meantime, SHIB token is inching closer to removing another zero from its price, which it gained back in November 2022 after the collapse of the FTX exchange. SHIB is currently trading at $0.000009561, up 3% over the past 24 hours.

Bitcoin manages to regain $18,000 as bullish streak continues

To the great delight of all Bitcoin holders, the price of the largest crypto on the market surged yet again yesterday. It peaked at $18,385 on the Bitstamp exchange and is now changing hands at $18,846. The leading cryptocurrency has added over 10% to its value during the course of its nine-day rise, which is the biggest bullish run since 2020. According to experts, the recent spike of risk assets could be tied to a cooling of inflation expectations, together with the Federal Reserve’s expected slowing of interest rate hikes.