CoinMarketCap News, Jan 12: Will Today's Inflation Figures Give Bitcoin Another Boost?

Maybe — just maybe — 2023 will be different. Bitcoin has surged beyond $18,000 for the first time in a month, fueled by a nine-day rally. The world's No. 1 cryptocurrency has accelerated by 9.5% since the year began. There's optimism in the wider market that inflation is cooling down, and the pace of interest rates may slow. But there are challenges ahead — with Coinbase's CEO recently warning that contagion may spread deeper into the crypto industry. Ether's also cracked $1,400 for the first time since November, with Avalanche rallying 23% over the past 24 hours. Bitcoin's move may have been helped by the S&P 500 closing Wednesday's up 1%. On Thursday, hotly anticipated CPI data from the U.S. will reveal how inflation changed in December.

A flicker of good news: FTX's new management appears to be making good progress in recovering funds for customers. Last month, this figure stood at $1 billion — now, it's surged to $5 billion. It's a blend of cash and liquid cryptocurrencies, and excludes a treasure trove of altcoins that are too illiquid to sell. Unfortunately, the bankruptcy court was told that it remains difficult to ascertain how much money is missing. That means there's still a real risk that customers won't get all of their money back. Adam Landis, an attorney representing the exchange, said: "We know what Alameda did with the money. It bought planes, houses, threw parties, made political donations. It made personal loans to its founders."

The latest estimates suggest nine million FTX customers had deposited a whopping $20 billion. And in other developments, the judge has ruled that their identities will remain secret for at least another three months. John Dorsey effectively sided with FTX's new management, who feared disclosing their names and personal details could lead to identity theft and unlawful harm. Of course, there are other concerns at play here — as details of FTX's customer book could also be valuable to rivals. This is an unusual ruling, considering that the details of creditors are usually disclosed in court filings. You may remember that the circumstances of Celsius Network's customers were laid bare in a 14,500-page document last year.

RIP FTX Arena. Officials in Miami have been given permission to scrub the stadium of the doomed exchange's branding. The arena is home to NBA's Miami Heat team — and Sam Bankman-Fried had paid a jaw-dropping $135 million for naming rights in a 19-year deal. Unfortunately, removing all traces of FTX from the arena isn't going to be an overnight job. Its logo is currently emblazoned on the stadium's roof — with advertising throughout the arena itself. The bankrupt platform's branding also appears on the polo shirts worn by security workers and the identity cards used by staff, the report noted. At this stage, it's unclear whether there's another business that's waiting in the wings to pounce on the naming rights for the stadium.

El Salvador has passed a new law that will pave the way for long-awaited "Volcano Bonds" to hit the market. They had been due to launch in March 2022 — but their rollout has been repeatedly delayed after BTC's value plummeted. The idea is to raise $1 billion, with half of the sum invested into Bitcoin and the other half spent on infrastructure. This would include ambitious plans to build "Bitcoin City" — a metropolis that would sit at the base of a volcano. The Central American nation's Bitcoin Office has described it as a "landmark" law, adding: "El Salvador is the epicenter of Bitcoin adoption, and thus, economic freedom, financial sovereignty, censorship resistance and unconfiscatable wealth."