Bitcoin is rallying following U.S. military action in Venezuela while ledger users face a new security risk after a third-party data breach.

You're watching Coin Desk Daily. I'm your host, Jen Sanasi.

Bitcoin is starting the new year with a rally climbing above $93,000 amid geopolitical tensions in South America.

The primary catalyst is the sudden U.S. military action in Venezuela, where special forces captured President Maduro over the weekend.

The strike has ignited massive speculation that the U.S. could seize a rumored shadow reserve of Bitcoin held by the Venezuelan government,

possibly as large as the stack owned by strategy. These claims remain unverified.

Meanwhile, bulls are watching for a potential disinflationary impulse if the U.S. taps into Venezuela's

300 billion barrels of oil reserves, though experts warn that the country's heavy crude

will be difficult and

expensive to bring to market anytime soon. Ledger is once again grappling with a data

exposure incident, this time originating from its third-party payment processor GlobalE. The breach

involved unauthorized access to GlobalE's cloud systems compromising the names and contact

details of ledger users who make

purchases on the company's website. While the total number of affected users have not been revealed,

blockchain sleuths Zach XPT was among the first to flag the breach on Monday. The wallet maker

has moved quickly to reassure users that its actual hardware and software remain secure,

as GlobalE never has access to private

keys or recovery phrases. However, the company is urging extreme vigilance against sophisticated

fishing attacks that often followed these types of leaks. And PWC is ending years of caution

and moving to deepen its engagement with the crypto sector. Paul Griggs, the US CEO of the

big four accounting firm, told the Financial Times that

PWC is ready to, quote, lean in to digital assets with the passage of the Genius Act as a

...