Early Bitcoin Pioneer Ian Freeman Goes to Trial in New Hampshire — Federal prosecutors say early bitcoin pioneer and Libertarian activist Ian Freeman and a group of his associates helped scammers and other criminals launder more than $10 million using bitcoin through a network of bitcoin vending machines and in-person and virtual cash-for-bitcoin trades from 2016 until their arrests in 2021. Freeman is standing trial in New Hampshire this week to face federal charges related to tax evasion and the operation of an unlicensed money transmitting business. Freeman and a group of his associates — who have collectively been dubbed the “Crypto 6” — were arrested in a raid in March 2021. Four of the Crypto 6, including Freeman’s fellow radio host Aria DiMezzo, his former girlfriend Renee Spinella and her husband Andrew Spinella, and Nobody (formerly Richard Paul) have taken plea deals. Though DiMezzo is not set to be sentenced until later this month, the other three defendants escaped with relatively lenient sentences, avoiding jail time. Another, Colleen Fordham, had all charges against her dropped.

Bitcoin Holds Its $17K Perch Amid Rate Hike Concerns — The largest cryptocurrency by market value was recently trading just above $17,000, up a smidgen of a percentage point over the past 24 hours and roughly around its level of the past two weeks as investors continued to weigh economic indicators suggesting the U.S. central bank still had work to do on the inflation front. BTC has remained tethered to the $17,000 handhold it grabbed eight days ago when signs pointed to the Federal Reserve retreating from its ultra monetary hawkishness. But in a speech at the Brookings Institute on Dec. 1, Fed Chair Jerome Powell indicated that the bank might raise interest rates higher than expected in 2023 even as it contemplated lowering its next rate hike later this month from its current fare of 75 basis points (bps) increases to 50 bps. “The positive market response to the Powell speech suggests that macro conditions will still play a substantial part in BTC’s price discovery onwards,” Arcane Research, which provides analysis of digital asset trends, wrote in a newsletter on Tuesday.

**Nomura’s Crypto Arm Seeks Profit in Two Years in Shakeout After FTX Crisis—**Nomura Holdings Inc. plans to break a profit at its crypto unit within two years as the spectacular failure of Sam Bankman-Fried’s FTX exchange spurs demand for safer counterparties in the digital-asset sector. The unit, Laser Digital, will leverage the backing of the Tokyo-based investment bank to win over institutional investors and plans to add 50 employees by March, its Chief Executive Officer Jez Mohideen said. It’s now easier to hire talent and acquire assets at a lower valuation, he said, adding that the firm has tightened risk management. “The latest events in the crypto market will provide an opportunity for us as it will drive institutional investors to digital-asset firms backed by traditional finance houses,” Mohideen said in an interview. “We’ve run all the stress tests and assuming worse-case scenarios in terms of market volume, price volatility, we believe we can turn profitable within two years.”

Bitcoin, Ether rise in slow trading, Solana gains on Web3 game partnership — Bitcoin edged up above US$17,000 in Wednesday morning trading, a level it has fluctuated around for much of the past week. Ether also tracked higher along with most other top 10 non-stablecoin cryptocurrencies in slow trading. Solana was the only token to gain more than 1%.