Prices as of 4:15 p.m. EST

Bank of America (NYSE:BAC) polled its clients managing a combined $561B in assets and ranked bitcoin as the world's "most crowded trade."

• Bank of America's survey respondents ranked bitcoin above all tech stocks as the most crowded trade.
• Bank of America strategists led by Michael Hartnett also hinted at rising suspicions regarding an approaching price correction in the report.
• Risk appetite achieved another record: respondents also indicated that their investments in emerging market stocks increased by 7% to a net 62% overweight, lifting emerging markets to the most overweight record in Bank of America's survey history.

After months of delay, Bitfinex will soon deliver key documents to the New York Attorney General (NYAG) office, as ordered by the U.S. Supreme Court.

• The documents will reveal more financial details and shed light on how Bitfinex used a massive loan from the company behind the stablecoin Tether (USDT).
• Tether is actively traded on hundreds of cryptocurrency exchanges. This document production will only reveal details of a constrained time period on one exchange.
• In December 2020, the NYAG office said it expected the document transfer within a few weeks.

This is a developing story. We will continue following the investigation into Tether here at Inside Cryptocurrency.

Chainalysis reported a decrease in traditional criminal activity yet a major rise in ransomware attacks last year.

• Chainalysis' report, published Jan. 19, highlighted a drop in transfers between criminal entities to $10B during 2020 versus 2019's $21.4B.
• According to the data furnished by the crypto intelligence company, most criminal revenue associates with money-laundering.
• Chainalysis' report also points towards an increase in ransomware theft, growing 131% from 2018 to 2019, and another 311% from 2019 to 2020.
• Some experts estimate that ransomware alone caused $20B in total economic losses during 2020.

New U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen testified to the Senate about her growing concerns about cryptocurrency's role in terrorist financing. Terrorists' use of cryptocurrencies is of "particular concern," Yellen said Tuesday. Yellen is the successor to Republican Steven Mnuchin.

Among her top concerns:

• Yellen testified during her senate confirmation hearing that she will address crypto's role in terrorist financing.
• She stated that the U.S. government needs to counteract technological tools used by criminal organizations.
• Yellen added that she believes that criminals are attracted to cryptocurrencies' irreversible ledgers in financing illicit activities.

Trading volume on Coinbase continues to increase amid bitcoin's bull run. The exchange is preparing for an initial public offering (IPO). On Jan. 11 alone, Coinbase reported over $9.5B in volume, more than the entire first quarter of 2019.

More:

• The San Francisco-based exchange has shared plans for its upcoming IPO.
• Some experts cite the Coinbase IPO as a market catalyst that is attracting capital into the bitcoin market.
• Google Trends shows consistent growth in interest among U.S. citizens for both bitcoin and Coinbase.
• An article by Brave New Coin highlights Coinbase's popularity among mobile users in the U.S. The Coinbase app is the sixth most popular in the Finance category on Apple's App Store.
• The exchange has over 35M customers.
• Some have filed complaints with the SEC regarding repeated outages that caused losses in 2018.

QUICK HITS:

• How are companies deciding on privacy management solutions in 2021? This eGuide breaks it down.*
• Former President Donald Trump, on his last day in office, delivered a last-minute pardon to Ken Kurson, among 72 others. Kurson served as a Ripple (XRP) board member.
• The world's largest asset manager, Blackrock (NYSE:BLK), will add bitcoin futures to two of its funds.
• In a blog dated Jan. 19, Coinbase announced that it will acquire Bison Trails which develops blockchain infrastructure for banks. The deal is reportedly worth $80M.
• A Bloomberg report dated Jan. 15 suggests that Mt. Gox victims could recover their digital assets "before legal claims are settled." The deal, struck by CoinLab Inc. with Mt. Gox trustee Nobuaki Kobayashi, allows creditors to reclaim as much as 90% of their remaining bitcoin.
• Allan Flynn is suing Westpac and ANZ, asking the Australian banks for AUD250,000 ($190,000) as compensation in an ACT Civil and Administrative Tribunal for closing his cryptocurrency accounts without warning, which damaged his business.
• Iranian media reports that on Jan. 16, police seized 45,000 bitcoin miners (mostly ASIC machines) illegally consuming about 95MWh of subsidized electricity from the Iranian electricity company Tavanir.
• France's central bank, Banque de France, performed interbank settlements using a blockchain platform (provided by a startup called SETL) as an experiment for a central bank digital currency (CBDC). Banque de France published the details of the $2.4M worth of transactions on Jan. 19.
• In a press release, Enjin, the company behind Enjin Coin (ENJ), announced approval from Japanese regulator JVCEA, claiming that ENJ is "the first gaming token in Japan." However, SBI has been using XRP in its e-sports subsidiaries, including paying e-sports salaries in XRP, for months.
• Bullish on Bitcoin? Start earning daily interest on it with Nexo's Crypto Savings Account.*

*This is sponsored content.