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Altcoins Blockchain News

ShibDoge Flips Shiba Inu To Become The Biggest Whale Holding

crypto memecoins
Crypto Memecoins Surge Amidst Current Market Decline

In the midst of the crypto market crash, crypto whales have sought sanctuary in meme currencies. In light of recent advancements by these meme currencies, whales have started acquiring Shiba Inu (SHIB), ShibDoge, and Dogecoin (DOGE). Second-place ShibDoge (SHIB) temporarily overtook SHIB (SHIB) as the most valuable coin held by whales today.

Following the introduction of the Shibarium upgrade at the end of June, whales have begun accumulating Shiba Inu. Shiba Inu’s principal developer Shytoshi Kusama’s releases of the SHI stablecoin and TREAT incentive token have been able to keep the accumulating trend going this month.

ShibDoge (SHIB) has eclipsed Shiba Inu (SHIB) as the largest dollar holding among the top 100 ETH whales, according to a new report from WhaleStats. After a few hours, SHIB regained the top spot among the most popular Ethereum (ETH) wallets.

Shiba Inu now has the most ETH worth $568.82 million out of the top ETH whales. ShibDoge is in second place with $433.23 million worth of tokens owned by the top 100 ETH whales, according to CoinMarketCap data. ShibDoge’s burn and NFT publicity may have piqued the curiosity of whales, despite being a minor meme currency.

When writing this, Shiba Inu’s (SHIB) prices had increased by approximately 5% over the previous day. Increased trading volumes have resulted in a surge in its value to $0.000010. The price of ShibDoge has risen 23% in the previous 24 hours because of whales’ purchases.

BSC whales have lately made large purchases of Dogecoin (DOGE), as well. Elon Musk’s reaffirmation of his support for Dogecoin sparked a 40 percent price surge in a week. The BNB whale “Martian Manhunter” bought 18,800,433 DOGE tokens on June 4.

Whales have been clamoring for Polygon’s MATIC since the month of July began. Sandbox’s LAND deployment on Polygon, a partnership with phone manufacturer Nothing for Web3, and Reddit and Polygon’s introduction of an avatar marketplace built on NFT have all put Polygon in the spotlight. It is now trading at $0.55, up 6% in one day and 21% in one week, as of this writing.

In addition, FTX Token (FTT), AAVE, and Uniswap (UNI) are all in high demand at the moment.

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Blockchain News

Reddit unveils new ‘Collectible Avatars’ powered by the blockchain

Reddit
Redditors have raised concerns about Coinbase

Reddit, a platform for sharing, rating, and discussing online content, unveiled a new avatar system based on blockchain technology on Thursday. Despite the lack of an official release date, the firm has hinted that the avatars will be accessible to everyone within the next two weeks, at the very latest. To begin with, Reddit is allowing members of the r/CollectibleAvatars subreddit early access to see the new features.

Artwork by independent artists who are Reddit members is being sold as Collectible Avatars, a series of limited-edition artwork. Local currencies are accepted for the purchase of the new avatars. However, according to the statement, the artwork is saved on the Polygon blockchain. Additionally, Reddit’s blockchain-powered wallet Vault, which operates on Ethereum-compatible chains, manages the Collectible Avatars.

As noted in Thursday’s statement on Reddit’s website, this new step intends to empower artists who use the service:

“From the beginning, our mission has been to enable artists to produce and sell their work.” For every Collectible Avatar sold on Reddit, the artist will be compensated, less any costs, and will also be eligible to collect royalties from secondary sales of their Collectible Avatars on open markets. ‘

Reddit users may create their new avatars in the same place they’ve always done so, with the addition of the new selection. Reddit avatars may be used with a Collectible Avatar once acquired. Unique advantages will be available to those who own Collectible Avatars as well as a share in future secondary sales for the Collectible Avatar makers.

“Collectible Avatars are now stored on Polygon, a general-purpose, Ethereum-compatible blockchain,” according to the release on Thursday. We went with Polygon because of its minimal transaction costs and dedication to sustainability.”

“Blockchain-backed Collectible Avatars are one of the early steps we’re taking to test out the potential advantages of this idea on Reddit,” Reddit stated in a statement.

Reactions to the concept’s relevant characteristics were also noted on Reddit.

Reddit communities will be better equipped and more autonomous in the future thanks in part to blockchain technology. When it comes to online decentralization, Reddit has always been a leader. Our community is established and operated by our members; we’re researching solutions that will enable them to become even more self-sustaining and self-governed.”
Reddit’s effort into NFTs isn’t it’s first; the business introduced CryptoSnoos in February.

When the crypto market crashes in 2022, some businesses are opting to construct instead of buying back in. The Lamborghini-backed GT racing team’s intention to use NFTs to verify vehicle components is another recent development in the NFT space, as shown by a new DappRadar report. Art-based tokens have been more popular in recent years, but the next NFT gold rush may well be in expiring copyrights.

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Blockchain Business News

Sam Bankman-Fried: FTX Has “Few Billions” to Help Crypto Firms

Bankman-Fried
Sam Bankman-Fried Reiterate His Support For Solana

Crypto derivatives exchange FTX CEO Sam Bankman-Fried (SBF) stated Wednesday that his organization still has a “few billion dollars” to help faltering crypto companies that might further disrupt the market, according to Reuters, which first reported the statement. The worst of the liquidity constraint, according to the crypto entrepreneur, has largely passed.

There is no question that SBF is a major participant in the cryptocurrency market. As a result of the present market recession, which has resulted in the disappearance of billions of dollars from the total market capitalization, he has provided financial assistance to several companies under strain.

The number of firms interested in working with us is increasing. Although some smaller crypto exchanges may still collapse, “these enterprises are typically not in severe positions,” Bankman-Fried noted in an interview. “Other major shoes that have to drop” are no longer relevant, he said.

As the CEO of FTX has previously said, more crypto businesses are on the verge of going out of business, stressing that others are “secretly insolvent.” Bankman-Fried, on the other hand, emphasized that his business still has finances to support suffering companies, secure customers’ investments, and prevent the spread of disease across the sector.

Revolving credit facility loans from SBF and FTX have been issued to various unsuccessful projects and organizations, including BlockFi, a crypto lending firm that recently lost money owing to its client’s failure to fulfill margin calls.

Reports this week said that BlockFi, BlockFi’s revolving credit facility, and an option to acquire the company for $240 million were inked earlier this week by the American branch of the company.

SBF also offered assistance to Voyager Digital, a crypto brokerage in New Jersey that had been affected by the bankruptcy of 3AC and was now facing large losses as a result of market instability.

To ensure the safety of its clients’ funds, the brokerage has put a halt to withdrawals. It has already been announced that the company has filed for chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in the Southern District of New York.

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Blockchain News Regulation

Will Boris Johnson’s resignation ease UK crypto laws?

boris johnson
CEO CZ Meets Ivory Coast President As Binance Pursues Aggressive Expansion

Reuters says that Conservative Party leader Boris Johnson is likely to step down, as the BBC has confirmed. In October, he is anticipated to resign from his position as Prime Minister.

Johnson’s former chancellor of the exchequer, Rishi Sunak, is considered a favorite to succeed him as the next Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, according to Time magazine. The UK’s crypto ecosystem stands to benefit if Sunak becomes the next Prime Minister of the United Kingdom.

Since Chris Pincher’s sexual assault charges were made public, there have been a number of resignations from the administration, including Johnson’s.

In the UK, Rishi Sunak is regarded as a leader in the crypto community. As part of a strategy to make the UK the world’s crypto capital, Sunak worked with Treasury Economic Secretary John Glen. Under his leadership, the Treasury backed the regulation of stablecoins, making them a recognized medium of exchange in the United Kingdom. For his part, he advocated for an FCA-led ‘CryptoSprint.’

In addition, he wanted to collaborate with the Royal Mint on a National Financial Transaction (NFT). DAOs, or decentralized autonomous organizations, should be given legal standing, according to Sunak. According to recent reports, Sunak disregarded concerns raised by the Bank of England about the security and reliability of cryptocurrency payments. In light of this new legislation, he decided to continue ahead with it.

After Sunak’s departure, the UK’s crypto goals were dealt a serious setback. CryptoUK’s Ian Taylor feels that the UK’s crypto business has returned to square one. However, if Sunak were to replace Boris Johnson as Prime Minister, the UK’s crypto economy may gain newfound vigor.

Rishi Sunak is largely expected to be the next prime minister. Rishi Sunak is one of the favorites at 24/5 according to the aggregate of multiple bookies. Sunak, according to several Bloomberg analysts, is also a strong candidate for the top post.

Penny Mordaunt, now the UK’s International Trade Minister, is another potential candidate to succeed Boris Johnson. In addition, she looks to be pro-crypto. She worked to negotiate a collaboration between the City of London and the Texas Blockchain Council to promote financial innovation in the United Kingdom.

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Blockchain News

Binance’s CEO CZ meets with Ivory Coast president

Ivory Coast
Binance's CEO CZ meets with Ivory Coast president

A meeting with the Ivory Coast president was conducted by Binance CEO and founder Changpeng Zhao, “CZ,” on Tuesday to discuss the company’s plans for expansion into Africa.

According to a statement released by the president’s office, CZ visited with Alassane Dramane Ouattara, the country’s leader and Minister of Economy and Finance. CZ and the president addressed a wide variety of subjects, with an emphasis on the economic, financial, and regulatory ramifications of incorporating cryptocurrencies into Côte d’Ivoire’s banking system.

Officials in Côte d’Ivoire spoke about economic and financial difficulties associated to cryptocurrency access and the integration of this activity into commerce.

As a result, President Alassane OUATTARA and the government were asked for their help in bringing crypto trading to their country’s commercial exchanges. To develop a foothold on the African continent, Binance CEO has launched a series of charm offensives throughout the world. His second meeting with an African head of state regarding cryptocurrency and Web3 after meeting Yoweri Kaguta Museveni of Uganda in 2018.

CZ had tweeted earlier this week that “Africa is poised for crypto adoption,” citing the fact that blockchain can be used on a smartphone to facilitate this. The reason for his trip to the West African country, he said in a subsequent tweet, was that they were “Working on adoption, all across the globe.”

As the second-most populated continent in the world, Africa still has just 2% of the global cryptocurrency market capitalization, even though it has 1.5 billion inhabitants. Binance has the chance to fill the hole left by conventional banks in Africa, which accounts for around 80% to 90% of the continent’s population.

Cryptocurrencies have gotten a warm welcome in Africa because many users feel this is the windfall they have been waiting for in the face of inflation. As of recently, the Central African Republic became the first African country to recognize Bitcoin as legal tender, with more indications that crypto-friendly policies or even swallowing the orange pill may be forthcoming.

In terms of daily users and trading volume, Binance is the biggest cryptocurrency exchange in the world right now. Peer-to-peer users on Binance in Africa grew by 3,435 percent between 2017 and 2021. According to The Africa Report, the platform saw a 480 percent increase in the number of African traders and a 589 percent increase in trading volume.

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Bitcoin Blockchain News

Graff Diamonds sues insurer over $7.5M Bitcoin ransom

Graff diamonds
Graff Diamonds sues insurer over $7.5M Bitcoin ransom

Following a ransomware attack in September 2021, Graff Diamonds Corp., a well-known British jeweler, has sued The Travelers Companies Inc. for $7.5 million, Bloomberg reported on Wednesday.

The billion-dollar jewelry firm claimed that the extortion loss should be compensated by the insurance coverage, according to the article. On the other hand, Graff claimed Travelers had refused to provide indemnification..

‘We are exceedingly dissatisfied and angered by Travelers’ effort to evade payment of this insured risk. Company spokesperson: “They have left us with no choice but to take these recovery procedures to the High Court.”

David Beckham, Tom Hanks, Samuel L. Jackson, Alec Baldwin, Sir Philip, Donald Trump, and other A-list celebrities are among the store’s celebrity clients, as are Middle Eastern royalty and members of the Trump family.

Ransomware group “Conti” used the company as a stepping stone to steal customer data earlier this year.

If the ransom is not paid, the hackers would expose a portion of stolen information pertaining to purchases made by celebrities such as David Beckham, Oprah, and Donald Trump as evidence that the files were hacked.

According to the gang’s assertions, the publicized material was barely 1% of the stolen information.

As a last resort, Graff Diamonds made a payment request and offered to pay half of their original demand in bitcoin. The Conti group received 118 BTC worth $7.5 million in payments delivered to a Bitcoin wallet on November 3, 2021.

“Criminals threatened to publish specific private purchases of our consumers. After months of negotiations, we were able to agree on a payment that completely removed the danger to Graff’s interests.

The payment of a ransom in BTC is not new, though. CWT, an American-based travel firm situated in the United States, spent $4.5 million in Bitcoin to recover access to its critical information after a security breach in 2020, according to Coinfomania.

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Blockchain News

Voyager Files For Chapter 11 Bankruptcy Protection

Voyager $270 million
Voyager gets $270 million customer refund approval

Voyager Digital, a cryptocurrency brokerage service, stated today that it has voluntarily filed applications for Chapter 11 reorganization in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of New York. Only a few days before, the company had banned withdrawals as it looked for tactical options aimed at asset protection.

“This complete restructuring is the best approach to secure assets on the platform and maximize value for all stakeholders, including consumers,” stated Stephen Ehrlich, CEO of Voyager.

According to a court document, the company has over 100,000 creditors, assets between $1 billion and $10 billion, and obligations totaling the same amount.

In a news statement, Voyager said that it currently has more than $110 million in cash and controlled cryptocurrency assets that will allow the company to function normally during the Chapter 11 process.

The company also owns $1.3 billion in cryptocurrency assets on its platform, more than $350 million in cash in its For Benefit of Customers (FBO) account at Metropolitan Commercial Bank, and $650 million in claims against cryptocurrency hedge fund Three Arrows Capital (3AC). Voyager sent 3AC a default notice last week.

Voyager said it had used every legal means at its disposal, including court-ordered liquidations in the British Virgin Islands and New York, to recoup its loan from 3AC.

Voyager said it would be able to make its consumers whole if the bankruptcy court approves the restructuring plan.

Customers would get a mix of cryptocurrency in their accounts, money from the 3AC recovery, shares in the newly restructured business, and Voyager tokens, according to the proposal.

Furthermore, when a reconciliation and fraud prevention procedure with Metropolitan Commercial Bank is finished, users who have money in their accounts in US dollars will have their money back.

The broker said that trading and withdrawals are still blocked on its platform and that it would keep looking at all strategic options to maximize value for its clients and other stakeholders.

In the meanwhile, liquidity issues have been spreading across the industry since the current market collapse. The cryptocurrency loan firms Celsius Network and Babel Finance have put a halt to withdrawal capabilities on their websites.

Vauld, a Singapore-based marketplace for loans, has halted trading as well as deposits and withdrawals from its system.

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Blockchain News NFT

Meta NFT plans continue despite crypto program closure

Meta
Meta's NFT plans continue despite crypto program closure

Following the news that it will no longer be developing the Novi project, Meta provided clarification that its other cryptocurrency initiatives are progressing as expected. Since quite some time ago, the business has been hard at work developing what it refers to as non-fungible tokens (NFTs).

The corporation made the announcement only a few days ago that it would soon be discontinuing its Novi project, which facilitates remittances as well as international money transfers.

The business announced that the project will no longer be functioning beginning on September 1st. Users of Novi were notified by the team to check the amount of money still available in their accounts.

“The Novi pilot will be coming to an end very soon. After September 1st, Novi will no longer be a service that may be used. Ahead of Novi’s retirement, we’ve made it simple for you to retrieve the amount of money left on your Novi account and download any relevant information.

In the meanwhile, the massive technology company is going to great lengths to ensure that its NFT initiative is successful. According to an article published by the Financial Times, Meta’s intentions for NFTs have not undergone any kind of adjustment.

According to Stephane Kasriel, who serves as the director of the fintech for the firm, millions of Meta users will have the opportunity to acquire NFTs.

“The potential that Meta sees is for the tens of millions, hundreds of millions, or perhaps billions of individuals who are now using our applications. They will have the ability to gather digital items in their collection. Because there are millions of people in the world who are creative and have the ability to make virtual and digital products, we want to make it possible for them to sell such things via our platforms.

According to Kasriel, the cryptocurrency business has recently been going through a hype cycle. He went on to say that the hype caused early excitement to collapse and burn in a bear market.

A senior executive at Meta who was in charge of payments and crypto left the firm in May of this year in order to pursue changes in the cryptocurrency market.

Then, David Marcus, who had previously served as head of payments and crypto at Meta, stated that he would be venturing into the cryptocurrency industry as an entrepreneur.

He made the announcement that a new company called Lightspark will be founded to investigate, develop, and enhance the potential and usefulness of Bitcoin.

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Blockchain News

Italy will subsidize blockchain startups with $46 million

Coinbase
Coinbase has been granted a license to operate in Italy

It has been revealed by the Italian Ministry of Economic Development that some blockchain projects would be eligible to apply for up to $46 million in government subsidies beginning in September of this year.

Government financing will be available for initiatives connected to artificial intelligence, the Internet of Things, and blockchain technology, the Ministry of Science and Technology said on Tuesday.

There is an initial 45 million euro budget for expenditures and costs ranging from $512,150 to $2,048,600 as part of the Italian government’s aims for investments in technology and research and innovation, according to the fund’s press release.

To encourage the modernization of industrial systems via management models that are more networked, efficient, secure, and quick, Minister of Economic Development Giancarlo Giorgetti stated: “We support enterprises’ investments in cutting-edge technology. Competitiveness necessitates ongoing innovation and the adoption of new technology in the industrial business.”

It was made possible by two decrees, the first of which specified requirements for accessing the fund and the second of which, issued by the Ministry of Finance in June of 2022, stipulated the terms and circumstances under which applications might be submitted.

According to the decree, enterprises of any size may apply for subsidies if the funds are utilized for IoT, AI, or blockchain in industries such as manufacturing, tourism, health, and the environment, as well as aerospace.

Italy, a member of the European Union, is likely to be impacted by new EU legislation aimed at bringing crypto issuers and service providers under EU jurisdictional supervision.

Although the Italian Companies and Exchange Commission, or CONSOB, has previously warned residents about the potential risks of crypto investments, it is the Organismo Agenti e Mediatori, which is in charge of approving crypto service providers, that has granted regulatory approval to major crypto exchange Binance to open an Italian branch in May.

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Blockchain News

Hoskinson Slams Jimmy Song for Ridiculing Proof-of-Stake

Charles Hoskinson
Hoskinson Slams Jimmy Song for Ridiculing Proof-of-Stake

Charles Hoskinson, an American entrepreneur and co-founder of the Cardano and Ethereum Blockchains has voiced his anger at the recent criticism of the proof-of-stake consensus method made by cryptographer Jimmy Song. Vitalik Buterin, a former colleague and co-founder of Ethereum, scolded the engineer just 48 hours earlier.

Decentralization is the backbone of blockchain technology, which is why Jimmy Song tweeted on July 2 that the proof-of-stake consensus method does not solve the Byzantine Generals Problem.

On Monday night, Hoskinson quoted the tweet and remarked, “the amount of stupidity here is beyond comprehension.” A further tweet inside the conversation from Song bolstered his argument by stating that PoS makes it impossible to determine the canonicity of a blockchain without consulting a central authority, therefore ruling out decentralization as an option.

Song’s accusations have been addressed in a paper on Pos Blockchain titled “Ouroboros Genesis: Composable Proof-of-Stake Blockchains with Dynamic Availability,” according to Hoskinson.

Although his confidence is clearly shown in his declaration that anybody who does not comprehend his central claim is unqualified to discuss proof-of-stake,

Song’s argument has not only shocked Hoskinson, but Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin also voiced his displeasure with Song’s allegations earlier in the day on Sunday. Buterin is of the opinion that a line of reasoning should not be condemned on the basis of “one-line” technicalities surrounding the “definition.”.

There is a theory known as the “Byzantine Generals Problem” that explains the difficulties that decentralized systems have in reaching an agreement when there is no central authority. Using miners as generals, the Proof-of-Work consensus process is used to address the age-old dilemma.

Despite this, several countries, like China, have banned or limited the use of the Proof-of-Work mechanism because it is so reliant on mining, a resource-intensive industry.

Proof-of-stake consensus is designed to address the environmental issues that Proof of Work created, yet some Bitcoin supporters and believers of PoW tend to feel that PoS is not entirely decentralized.

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Ethereum

Ethereum Burns $2.8 Billion Worth of ETH through EIP-1559 Protocol

Ethereum
On-chain data shows Ethereum being utilized as a value storage

The Ethereum Improvement Proposal-1559 (EIP-1559) has withdrawn approximately $3 billion in ETH from circulation less than a year after it was activated.

According to Ultrasound. money’s most current statistics, EIP-1559 has burnt over $2.8 billion in ETH at a rate of 5.23 ETH per minute. At the moment, the protocol consumes around 1.8 ETH per minute.

The “London Hard Fork” update to Ethereum’s blockchain, which took place in August of last year, gave rise to five new proposals, one of which is EIP-1559.

There is a fee-burning mechanism that was added by EIP-1559. In order to conduct transactions, Ethereum users are required to pay a tiny cost known as “base fees.”

EIP-1559 proposes to decrease the supply of ETH by burning a portion of the daily base fees, which might lead to an increase in the asset’s price.

Another update, called the “Ethereum Merge,” is set to follow Ethereum’s London hard fork.

A significant update to the Ethereum network, known as Merge, will see the network switch from its current consensus method, Proof-of-Work (PoW), to Proof-of-Stake (PoS).

Using PoS, Ethereum developers are convinced that Ethereum will consume less energy, making the blockchain more environmentally friendly.

The Ethereum Merge, like the London hard split, has been postponed multiple times before its execution. However, Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin announced only a few weeks ago that the merger would take place in August of that year. There are no guarantees that the upgrading will take place in September or October of 2022.

The network’s engineers have been testing the update utilizing portions of the network in preparation for the Merge. The mainnet’s readiness for the upgrade will be determined by how well these tests perform on small portions of the network. By running these tests, we can have a good idea of what the Merge will look like when it is completed. They also uncover any potential technical issues or defects.

Three shadow fork tests were done at the same time. Beacon, a prospective Ethereum blockchain, was successfully tested on Ropsten, a public testnet, soon after.

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Blockchain Opinion People

Why Cumberland sees more short-term volatility

crypto market
Is Another Crypto Mass Sell-Off Coming?

Cumberland, a prominent liquidity source for institutional crypto traders, predicts more market volatility as more centralized entities are dissolved.

In a Twitter thread, the trading desk said that the crypto assets of these companies would ultimately be liquidated, a move that is certain to increase market volatility.

The majority of these liquidations will occur off-chain, keeping the majority of traders in the dark about the transfer of assets.

Several cryptocurrency exchanges, including Celsius, Voyager, and Vauld, have banned withdrawals, alleging a severe liquidity constraint. Celsius and Voyager are now undergoing reorganization, which might result in the liquidation of their assets.

Cumberland, which has handled cryptocurrency transactions for a number of significant customers, including Goldman Sachs, said that the lack of transparency around such liquidations may discourage traders from engaging in the market.

According to the trading desk, the present range-bound price movement in the market conceals a considerably more turbulent picture under the surface.

It was also emphasized that the situation is not unique to cryptocurrencies; firms with excessive debt have traditionally suffered losses during weak markets.

The pace at which distressed assets are shifted from the balance sheets of the insolvent onto those of the solvent will influence how quickly markets recover to a healthy condition.

-Cumberland

However, the trading desk also acknowledged that DeFi systems provided order and transparency throughout the collapse as expected.

Due to unfavorable macroeconomic circumstances, the value of crypto markets has plummeted this year. Bitcoin and Ethereum are down 58 percent and 69 percent, respectively, since the beginning of the year.

After suffering significant losses, the market is now hovering at its lowest level since the middle of 2020. However, there are a few variables that might aid in recovery.

In recent months, mounting worries of a U.S. recession have been accompanied by a rush of probable crypto bankruptcy.

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Bitcoin Blockchain News Opinion People

JPMorgan Strategist: Crypto Bear Market Almost Over

JPMorgan
JPMorgan Strategist: Crypto Bear Market Almost Over

The worst of the crypto winter, according to a JPMorgan analyst, is about to end for crypto assets, companies, and individual investors. As a last option for many failed crypto companies, deleveraging is projected to be nearing its end.

“Indicators like our Net Leverage indicator show that deleveraging is already well progressed,” said Nikolaos Panigirtzoglou, JPMorgan’s strategist and Managing Director. Deleverage holdings have risen significantly during the weak market, according to Panigirtzoglou.

Other crypto enterprises with “stronger balance sheets” are making it their business to help restrict the virus spread by the bear market, according to him, which accounts for part of the reason for this forecast. He added.

The analyst was clearly referring to FTX’s assistance in the BlockFi situation, a Bahamian bitcoin futures market. To assist BlockFi in “managing the market from a position of strength,” the exchange provided a $250 million emergency credit line.

As a second factor, venture capital financing has not been significantly impacted by the present market conditions, which also influenced the prediction, In spite of the recent Crypto Winter, financing has topped $5 billion in the months of May and June.

By swiftly selling off its assets, a company is able to lower its leveraged positions and pay off its obligations. After Terra’s UST stablecoin plunged, several crypto companies have reduced their leveraged bets in response.

As of recently, a $670 million loan from Voyager Digital was unpaid by Three Arrows Capital, a Singapore-based crypto hedge fund. Due to the present overpowering circumstances, it has been difficult for the crypto hedge fund to navigate the market. This has made it vulnerable to bankruptcy.

According to current market conditions, firms like Celsius Network are among those with exposures to significant leverages that seem to be backfiring.

In the next weeks, the crypto market’s future trajectory is uncertain, but it is expected to have a significant impact on investors and crypto businesses.

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Bitcoin Blockchain News

Hacker asks 10 Bitcoin for Chinese Stolen Data

Chinese
Hacker asks 10 Bitcoin for Chinese Stolen Data

An unknown hacker has made a proposition to sell the personally identifiable information of over one billion Chinese citizens in exchange for ten Bitcoin (BTC), which is roughly equivalent to $200,000 USD at the current exchange rate.

The information that is obtained includes the names, birthplaces, houses, telephone numbers, national identification numbers, criminal records, and other particulars of private persons dwelling inside the boundaries of the country.

It is believed that the hacker obtained access to the database of the Chinese police department in Shanghai, grabbed more than 26 gigabytes worth of personal information from the database, and then deleted the database.

Because of the enormous quantity of data that was at stake, many of them were skeptical about the validity of the hacker’s claim as soon as they heard it for the first time.

On the other side, the hacker revealed some of the information in order to demonstrate how extensive the assault was.

The Chief Executive Officer of Binance, Changpeng Zhao, has acknowledged the claims that have been made against the business.

He made the revelation earlier on this day through Twitter that the threat intelligence obtained by his organization had found someone who was proposing to sell the personal information of one billion people of a nation in Asia. The country in question is located in Asia.

The compromise in security “was presumably brought about by a weakness in an ElasticSearch deployment by a government agency,” according to the reporting of CZ.

On the other hand, he has said without equivocation that the vulnerability was brought about as a consequence of “the government engineer writing a tech blog on CSDN and mistakenly including the credentials.”

Binance has reportedly strengthened its security protocols in order to confirm the accounts of users whose data may have been compromised as a result of the attack, as stated by Zhao.

In addition to this, he strongly suggested that the same policy be implemented across all of the other platforms.

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Blockchain News Technology

Voyager is looking into strategic options after freezing withdrawals

Voyager
U.S. FDIC Warns Banks About Voyager

This past Sunday, crypto broker Voyager Digital posted a series of tweets outlining its search for new strategic options in order to preserve its clients’ funds and maximize their return on investment.

Within days after the suspension of trading, deposits, withdrawals, and loyalty incentives on the platform of the brokerage business, a statement was issued

More than $650 million in claims against the hedge fund Three Arrows Capital (3AC) and over $350 million in cash at the Metropolitan Commercial Bank are among the firm’s crypto assets.

Voyager said in a press statement on Friday that trading, deposits, withdrawals, and loyalty awards on its platform had been discontinued.

It allows the brokerage business more time to continue exploring strategic possibilities with multiple interested parties while safeguarding the value of its platform, according to Stephen Ehrlich, Voyager Digital’s CEO.

After 3AC failed to pay back its debts, Voyager filed a notice of default on the platform. This has had a severe impact on the service.

Despite 3AC’s demise, the brokerage business says it is seeking all legal options to collect, including a court-ordered liquidation procedure in the British Virgin Islands.

As part of its strategic review, Voyager has hired Moelis & Company and The Consello Group as financial consultants, and Kirkland & Ellis LLP as legal counsel.

Voyager has received a $500 million line of credit from Alameda Research, a quantitative trading business, to satisfy its clients’ liquidity needs. As of this writing, the broker has tapped $75 million from the line of credit.

As a result of the present bear market, the corporation has joined a growing list of companies that are struggling to meet their financial obligations.

Celsius, Babel Finance, and CoinFlEX all stopped accepting withdrawals from their platforms last month.

Crypto companies have reduced the quantity of their personnel to comply with the current market crisis and other measures.

Coinbase, the world’s most popular cryptocurrency exchange, lay off 18 percent of its workforce in June.

Many leading cryptocurrency companies, like CryptoCom, BitFi and Gemini have also decreased their workforces.

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Blockchain News Technology

This is Why Binance CEO Took Jab At Vauld

Binance KyberSwap
Binance has identified the culprits in the KyberSwap breach

CEO Chengpang “CZ” Zhao of Binance slammed Vauld, a Singapore-based crypto exchange, and loan business, on Twitter.

CZ, in response to a report on Vauld’s suspension of withdrawals, warned against utilizing platforms that need VC backing. As far as he is concerned, they lack a solid business plan.

Because one of the firms financing Vauld is a rival of Binance (Coinbase), CZ’s jibe makes a lot of sense. Vauld is also backed by Valar Ventures, led by Peter Thiel, and Pantera Capital, which are both well-known investors.

David Schwartz, CEO of Ripple, also tweeted “RIP Vauld” in response to Vauld’s announcement.

Today, Vauld published a corporate statement announcing that its platform has been suspended due to market volatility, mentioning all withdrawals, trading, and deposits.

According to the site, the decrease in the crypto market was attributed to the collapse of Terra, Celsius’ suspension of withdrawals, and 3AC’s debt failure. Since June 12th, 2022, close to $200 million has been removed.

Last month, CEO Darshan Bathija issued a statement that is in sharp contrast to the suspension. According to a blog post by Bathija, the business has no exposure to Celsius or 3AC and is able to maintain liquidity despite the challenging market.

It was determined that Vauld’s primary account had a large number of transactions with 3AC, CEO Alex Svanevik disclosed. A month ago, Vauld revealed 3AC’s bankruptcy in a blog post.

The interactions with 3AC that Svanevik described occurred over a year ago and may not necessarily indicate exposure.

Centralized exchanges have been shutting down their services one after another, and Vauld is the latest to do so. With the bear market as an excuse, organizations like Three Arrow Capital and Celsius have also stopped operations. As a consequence, there are many people who are opposed to trading.

Lark Davis, a well-known cryptocurrency investor, and influencer urged his fans to avoid using centralized exchanges for their cryptocurrency holdings. In an interview with Satoshi Act Fund CEO Dennis Porter, he urged investors not to store any quantifiable cryptocurrency in exchanges.

Categories
Altcoins Blockchain News

Jed McCaleb’s Ripple stash may run out this year

Jed McCaleb
Jed McCaleb's Ripple stash may run out this year

Former Ripple Labs CEO Jed McCaleb had just 81.53 million XRP coins remaining to sell after selling billions of XRP tokens in 2014. McCaleb’s supply was predicted to run out in May of that year by the middle of February 2021. Selling went longer than expected, but the current data suggests that just $26 million is remaining.

When Ripple co-founder Jed McCaleb departed the firm in 2014 and founded Stellar, it was well known that he was holding billions of XRP.

XRP was being sold in big sums by McCaleb in February 2021 according to sources. According to xrpscan.com, McCaleb’s “Tacostand” wallet sold 38 million XRP, or $22 million, on February 14.

In May 2021, if the selling continued at its current pace, McCaleb’s XRP supply would be depleted. There was a slowdown in purchases, and McCaleb’s wallet still contains around $25 million worth of XRP.

McCaleb continues to dump XRP, as seen by the 22,007,874 XRP sold in three days on June 29, 2022, according to an observer. At the time of his departure from Ripple, McCaleb had around 9 billion XRP in his possession, and he has been selling them ever since.

To keep the XRP price stable, Ripple and McCaleb had an arrangement in place where the former Ripple executive would lock part of his cash. McCaleb sold $1.22 billion worth of XRP in February 2021 alone.

Even Nevertheless, McCaleb ceased the ‘Tacostand’ selling when the SEC initiated a complaint against Ripple. Despite this, It was initially authorized to sell 1 billion XRP per year between 2018 and 2019, and then it was increased to over 2 billion XRP by 2020.

According to data compiled and tracked by a web page, McCaleb sold 2.74 billion XRP in 2021. McCaleb sold 627 million XRP this year, according to statistics.

Unless McCaleb takes a break from selling XRP for many months, his stockpile of XRP may be depleted by the end of the year after he’s sold 627 million XRP so far this year.

Categories
Blockchain Ethereum

Ethereum ‘Merge’ Major Network Upgrade

Ethereum merge
Ethereum 'Merge' Major Network Upgrade

This week, Ethereum mainnet went live with the “Gray Glacier” network update, a step toward the planned shift to a proof-of-stake consensus mechanism for the blockchain.

Tim Beiko, an Ethereum Foundation engineer and Community Manager, revealed the Gray Glacier update on June 16 in an official blog post. A date of June 29 had been set for the rollout of the update, according to the article.

Beiko warned that due to time zone differences and block timings, the exact date of the update may change. When it comes to Ethereum’s “Difficulty Bomb” or “Ice Age,” this update is designed to move it back 700,000 blocks or about 100 days.

Before Monday, June 27, node operators were urged to upgrade their nodes in order to account for block timings that may vary. On June 30, the update was spotted in block 15,050,000.

As mentioned in the report, Ethereum users do not need to do any specific actions in order to welcome the update unless they are instructed to do so by the exchange or wallet service they use.

In contrast, node operators who do not upgrade their software will see their clients sync to pre-fork blockchains when the upgrade occurs. You will be unable to transmit Ether or operate on the post-upgrade Ethereum network if you are locked on an incompatible chain, according to Beiko in the blog post.

There are still some node operators who haven’t done the recommended upgrade. Only 71% of customers were genuinely ready for the update before it launched, as noted on Ethernode.

However, because of the move to proof-of-stake on the Ropsten testnet, this new difficulty bomb only impacts the mainnet.

The Ethereum difficulty bomb is a method used by the Ethereum team to discourage miners by reducing their earnings from mining in order to minimize mining activity while the network progressively transitions from PoW to PoS. The Gray Glacier update is now live, indicating that The Merge has finally begun to take effect.

Merge has been widely expected as Ethereum’s last network upgrade from a Proof of Work consensus method to a Proof of Stake consensus mechanism. An update is planned to take place in Q3/Q4 of this year, and enhancements that serve as forerunners have already been implemented by the Ethereum team.

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Blockchain News

Polygon And Fantom Hacked

polygon
Polygon And Fantom Hacked

Within the crypto world, a new DNS assault has been discovered. Hackers targeted Fantom and Polygon after first deceiving the vigilance of Ankr’s DNS provider, particularly their customer service, and getting access to the domain name registrar in order to launch attacks on Fantom and Polygon.

A hacker uploaded a phishing pop-up on Fantom and Polygon users on the morning of July 1, which the hacker had made and posted. The warning was sent on Twitter by an account that simply went by the name CIA.

The con artist initially attempted to trick Ankr’s DNS provider (a third party domain name system), which granted them access to the RPC (remote procedure call, remote procedure call interface) of both the Polygon and Fantom networks. This was the first step toward the scammer’s success.

To be more specific, the hacker pretended to be an employee of Gandi, a web service that provides Ankr DNS hosting. He then asked that they change the email address of the Ankr domain administrator to another email address that he had previously supplied to them. He did this by emailing a false ID to Gandi’s customer care and asking them to make the change.

Mudit Gupta, Chief Information Security Officer at Polygon, has also validated the aforementioned information, which can be seen above. Users are strongly encouraged to make the transfer to other connections or to a different node provider in the meantime.

Scams using cryptocurrencies are becoming more complex, which means that users need to keep their information up to date and exercise extreme caution while doing transactions in order to prevent losing funds.

Categories
Blockchain News

An $8.7 million DeFi Exploit was used to hack Crema Finance

Crema Finance
Attack on Polygon and Fantom: hacker pretended to be Ankr employee

In the early morning hours of Sunday, a security vulnerability was discovered in the Crema Finance protocol, which is used by the Solana network. The incident resulted in a loss of around $8.7 million, all of which is believed to be held by the hacker in distinct wallet addresses across the Ethereum and Solana networks.

Crema Finance describes itself as a protocol for focused liquidity. Users are able to trade Solana-based assets with one another using the app at minimal slippage and with economical costs. According to the information provided on its website, Crema Finance has managed a historical trading volume of more than $1.3 billion and counts more than 38,000 customers.

However, according to reports, the most recent attack was caused by a weakness that was connected to the protocol’s “ticks account,” which is a feature that is used for “error management” in Solana transactions. The attacker was able to alter Crema Finance’s pools after obtaining a flash loan via Solend, which is another Solana-based DeFi protocol.

Over $8.7 million was stolen, with just $2.27 million remaining in their Solana account once the thief was finished. The vast bulk, around 6.43 million dollars, was sent to Ethereum by means of the Wormhole protocol.

In the meanwhile, the Crema Finance team has sent an on-chain message to the unknown attacker in an attempt to communicate with them. The group has offered a reward of $800,000 to the hacker in the event that they agree to restore the stolen property within three days. If the hacker continued to disobey the team’s demands, they threatened to use “police and legal authorities” in their pursuit.

The hack of Crema Finance is noteworthy for a couple different reasons. It is the first assault on the Solana network that originated from flash loans, among other things, and that makes it notable. Over the course of the previous several years, multiple hacks in the multi-billion dollar range have been perpetrated in DeFi using flash loans, which, by their very definition, do not need approval.

As it would seem that hackers have moved their focus to the so-called “Ethereum killer,” Solana-based DeFi protocols, many of which are closed source, will presumably need to tighten up their security in order to avoid being compromised.

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Bitcoin Blockchain News Price Analysis

Bitcoin indicator forecasts $15.6K price bottom

Bitcoin price
Bitcoin (BTC) Declines Further

One of the market’s most reliable indications says that Bitcoin (BTC) has to fall lower before putting in a macro bottom.

Bitcoin’s MVRV-Z Score is nearly, but not quite, suggesting a price reversal, according to data from many sources, including on-chain analytics company Glassnode.

New data suggests that the market has room to fall much more, despite the continuing discussion over whether or not BTC/USD will go below its current macro low of $17,600.

MVRV-Z is presently in its traditional green zone but isn’t at the point which has previously accompanied price bottoms, as highlighted by Filbfilb, co-founder of trading package DecenTrader.

Measurement of Bitcoin’s spot price in relation to its “fair worth” is measured by MVRV-Z.

One of the most effective Bitcoin peak and bottom prediction methods is based on market capitalization and realized price data, as well as standard deviation.

LookIntoBitcoin points out that MVRV-Z has nailed every macro peak and bottom on BTC/USD in its history with a two-week accuracy.

In March 2020, the measure fell below the green zone for the first time since the metric was first introduced in 2012.

“For me, this chart is the one.” On the most recent readings, Filbflabb said:

At the present price of $15.6k, we usually hit our bottom when MC reaches a 30 percent gain on its cap.” In good macro times, anything above here is a danger of things being different this time, in my opinion.”

A price of $15,600 is consistent with a number of previous forecasts on when Bitcoin would reach its bottom.

According to the renowned Twitter account CryptoBullet, this location was one of many critical areas to keep an eye on during the weekend’s upgrade.

The average departure from Bitcoin’s 50-month moving average is $16,000, they revealed.

In addition to the fact that Bitcoin’s RSI (relative strength indicator) is already at its lowest point ever, this is another sign that the market is oversold.

Categories
Altcoins Blockchain News

Colombia Government Launches National Land Registry on XRP Ledger

Colombia
Colombian Government Launches National Land Registry on XRP Ledger

According to recent reports, the Colombia government is poised to take use of XRP blockchain technology. More than 50 million Colombian citizens will soon be able to access the first National Land Registry on the XRP Ledger (XRPL), a software and blockchain development startup that is Ripple’s longtime partner.

For the last year, Barcelona-based business has been working with Colombia’s “Digital Government” program and Ministry of Information Technology and Communication on the project, which has resulted in the creation of Colombia’s first “digital government.”

By employing XRP Stamp, the country’s National Land Agency will be able to verify and certify digital files and records on XRP Ledger, which is a blockchain-based initiative (XRPL). The data is subsequently added to the blockchain and preserved there permanently. QR codes are used to verify the authenticity of a product.

Colombia’s government agency, the Colombian Ministry of Information Technology and Communication, has been praised by Peersyst Technology for its willingness to allow blockchain technology to enter the country and for its interest in transparency.

Most of Peersyst’s blockchain-based initiatives are built on the XRP blockchain, which has a long-standing cooperation with Ripple. It’s as if the two organizations are twins, united in their pursuit of the same blockchain objectives.

When it comes to Bitcoin and cryptocurrency rules in Colombia, the Latin American nation is behind the curve. Colombia, in contrast to other countries like Argentina, Brazil, and El Salvador, has just recently enacted a statute governing cryptocurrency exchanges that have established regulatory principles and created a flourishing climate for digital assets.

In order to safeguard residents from the hazards of cryptocurrency-based Ponzi schemes, a measure enacted by Colombia’s Congress early last month clarified the country’s cryptocurrency exchange operating model for the first time. Before becoming law, the measure must still go through three more hearings and debates before being finalized.

The absence of effective regulation hasn’t put a damper on Colombians’ interest in or ownership of cryptocurrency. Six percent of Colombians will hold cryptocurrency in 2021, according to Triple-A, while eighty percent of Colombians expressed interest in it throughout the study.

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Ethereum Price Analysis

Ethereum (ETH) Price Analysis 07/02

Ethereum
On-chain data shows Ethereum being utilized as a value storage

This week, Ethereum has been on a downward trend and shows no signs of abating. There were no significant losses, but a red candle continued its streak on the fifth day of the seven-day span.

Traders who are still dealing with a lack of clarity about the future course of price movement are alarmed by this development. In spite of this, the asset has lost more than 11%. As a direct result of the current scenario, it has lost all of its previously accrued advantages.

Ethereum has retested the $1,000 support as a result of the current slump. Because of last week’s high demand, the price was unable to meet the target. The cryptocurrency was trading at $997 only a few hours before this article was written.

Traders’ fears have grown as of late due to the current status of the market. Several indicators, not only the fear and greed index, are leaning toward the negative.

For instance, the Relative Strength Index is one of them. The measure is nearing the oversold zone, with a reading of a little over 30. Oversold conditions might develop by the end of the week if we continue to see a decline.

The Moving Average Convergence Divergence (MACD) is another useful tool. It was on an ascent throughout the previous intraweek session and showed no response to the constant drop in price.

12-day MA looks to have run out of steam, as it has stalled. ETH’s decline from its most recent condition is causing it to fall as well.

A bearish divergence will occur if the 12-day and 26-day exponential moving averages intersect. As a result, there may be increased selling pressure in the near future. During this bearish run, more important levels may collapse.

There is still a lot of liquidation taking on in the derivatives market. More than $200 million has been sold in the previous 24 hours.

Categories
Bitcoin Blockchain News Technology

Bitcoin Miners and Bitcoin Crash

Bitcoin price
Bitcoin (BTC) Declines Further

In the last seven days, the price of bitcoin has fallen by nearly 10%. High selling pressure from BTC miners, according to the data, has caused the currency’s price to fall below the critical $19K price threshold.

According to Julio Moreno, a senior analyst at Cryptoquant, Bitcoin miners have entered a capitulation stage. He stated that they’ve seen an increase in the total amount of money exchanged between miners and traders. At a time when prices are at historic lows, a surge has been seen.

Bitcoin miner capitulation occurs in two forms according to the CEO of CryptoQuant Ki-Young Ju. Initially, experienced miners were selling their wares at a profit. As a second option, new miners are selling at a loss.

In contrast, the recent surge in Bitcoin sales has significantly impacted the BTC market’s ability to maintain a steady price. Research by Moreno said that the income of mining companies has decreased over time. The cost of mining has increased due to the difficulty. When the price of Bitcoin fell by 39 percent during the same time, mining difficulty rose by 51 percent.

Miners, says Moreno, have become sellers as profits have dwindled. The number of Bitcoins that miners sent to exchanges in June was roughly 23,000. Since May 2021, this has been the highest monthly reading. As a result, miners have been forced to work in the “highly underpaid” area.

One of the largest bitcoin miners in existence, Bitfarms, released its monthly report on July 1. In June 2022, 420 new Bitcoins were created. There has been a 58% increase from June 2021 to June 2021. Meanwhile, the company sold a total of 3,353 Bitcoins for $69 million throughout the month. They utilized a part of the funds to pay off their building.

This month, the price of the world’s most popular cryptocurrency, Bitcoin, fell to a low of $17,800. Over the last 30 days, BTC has lost 35% of its value. At the time of this writing, it is selling for $19,157. There has been a 24% decline in the 24-hour trading volume of Bitcoin, which now stands at $24.9 billion.

Categories
Blockchain News

FTX may buy BlockFi for 99% below its valuation

BlockFi
FTX may buy BlockFi for 99% below its valuation

FTX, a cryptocurrency derivatives exchange based in the Bahamas, is purportedly in the process of closing a deal to purchase BlockFi, a source has revealed. At a cost of $25 million, BlockFi will be acquired for less than a tenth of its most recent value.

According to people with knowledge of the issue, CNBC is reporting that FTX is likely to purchase the falling crypto lender, which was valued at roughly $5 billion in its previous Series E investment in July of 2021.

Both companies refused to comment when approached about the problem, with the BlockFi spokesperson remarking that the business does not comment on “market speculations.”

To refresh your memory, FTX has recently indicated an interest in BlockFi’s wealth management and trading business by providing an emergency $250 million line of credit to help BlockFi “navigate the market from a position of strength.”

According to rumors, FTX’s desire to acquire a share in BlockFi led to the $250 million credit line. In exchange for $250 million, FTX received a 25 percent stake in BlockFi’s stock, the source said.

BlockFi is one of the few companies in the crypto sector that has taken a significant impact as a consequence of the market circumstances caused by the seemingly endless crypto winter.

As CEO Zac Prince stated in a tweet on June 13th, the crypto lending behemoth has had to reduce its employees by 20%. According to Prince, the company’s growth rate has been badly affected by the drastic change in macroeconomic circumstances, much like many other IT businesses.

By cutting market expenditure, removing non-critical suppliers, and decreasing executive remuneration for Flori and myself and other executives as well as by slowing staff growth and reducing the size of our team we have been on the route to profitability,” stated Prince.

Early this month, it was reported that the previously $4.8 billion-valued business was attempting to obtain capital that would bring the company to a $1 billion valuation

Categories
Bitcoin Blockchain News

El Salvador Buys 80 More Bitcoins

El Salvador
El Salvador Buys 80 More Bitcoins

As of this writing, El Salvador balance sheet now stands at $1.5 million, thanks to the purchase of 80 BTC. The government claims to have paid an average of $19,000 for each of the digital currency’s bitcoins.

On Friday, El Salvador’s president, Nayib Bukele, tweeted an image showing the transactions, along with the announcement.

Last year, Bukele signed a bill declaring Bitcoin legal money in El Salvador, making it the first nation to do so. Since then, the country has been building up its cryptocurrency holdings. El Salvador has just made the lowest Bitcoin purchase since including the digital currency in its treasury last year.

Bitcoin’s latest drop below $20,000 coincides with the county’s most recent investment by the country in the cryptocurrency industry. The coin was trading at $19,409 at the time of this writing.

The country of El Salvador currently owns 2,381 BTC, which is worth $46.2 million. The country’s Bitcoin investment has fallen by more than 50 percent, resulting in an estimated $40 million in unrealized losses as a result of the market crisis.

In spite of this, El Salvador’s finance minister indicated that the loss does not constitute 0.5 percent of the country’s general budget and would not have an impact on the country’s fiscal health. In May, the government bought 500 bitcoins at a price of $30,744 apiece, totaling $15.5 million.

Bukele, on the other hand, feels that investors should not be alarmed about the present bear market since it will return.

After the bear market, President Trump predicted that the price of bitcoin will increase dramatically. Investors need not be concerned by the market’s decline, according to him, since their Bitcoin investments are secure.

Other reports show MicroStrategy just acquired 489 BTC for $10 million, raising its total Bitcoin holdings to 129,699 BTC, worth roughly $2.4 billion at current pricing. MicroStrategy is a major business analytics organization.

Even though MicroStrategy’s Bitcoin investment has lost more than 30 percent of its value, the company’s CEO continues to be a believer in the currency.

Categories
Blockchain News Regulation

Will Europe’s New Crypto Regulation Become a Global Model?

crypto regulation
Will Europe's New Crypto Regulation Become a Global Model?

The European authorities have come to an agreement on a set of standards at a time when there is an increasing desire for stringent crypto regulation.

The Council and the Economic and Monetary Affairs Committee’s negotiators were able to reach a temporary political agreement on new regulations for cryptocurrencies and digital assets.

Provisions on supervision, consumer protection, and environmental protections will be included for crypto-assets as part of the Markets in Crypto-Assets (MiCA) guidelines.

A number of the most important clauses that were agreed upon are relevant to people who issue and trade crypto-assets. The guidelines address aspects of cryptocurrency transactions like transparency, disclosure, authorization, and oversight.

The new MiCA guidelines make it mandatory for crypto players to educate customers about the potential dangers, expenses, and fees linked with cryptocurrencies.

In addition, the new regulatory framework will regulate public offerings of crypto-assets, which will promote both the integrity of the market and the stability of the financial system.

However, there is not yet complete clarity with regard to features like NFTs, decentralized exchanges, and stablecoins. An advocate of cryptocurrencies named Patrick Hansen said that investors would still need to search for further clarification on those elements.

Please keep in mind that there is not yet complete clarity on any of these elements, so take the following remarks with a grain of salt.

A member of the European People’s Party named Stefan Berger referred to the MiCA guidelines as a successful European initiative. He went on to say that we are the first continent to have a regulation in place for crypto-assets.

In the crypto world’s equivalent of the Wild West, MiCA will be the organization that establishes worldwide standards. MiCA will provide a fair playing field for service providers, enforce high standards for customer protection, establish a unified market, and give legal certainty to crypto-asset issuers.

According to Berger, the implementation of tokens will have the same transformative effect on the global financial system as did the development of the common market in the 17th century.

According to him, today is the first time ever that dependable authorization and regulatory frameworks for new tokens are being built, and this is all thanks to the MiCA law.

Categories
Blockchain News

Cryptoqueen Has Been Added to FBI’s Top Ten Most Wanted List

Cryptoqueen
Cryptoqueen Has Been Added to FBI's Top Ten Most Wanted List

When the term “Cryptoqueen” was conferred upon Ruja Ignatova in a true-crime podcast in 2019, it was done so with a great deal less affection than usual.

Ignatova is credited with inventing the so-called cryptocurrency OneCoin, which later turned out to be a fraudulent Ponzi scam.

Since 2014, her OneCoin Ltd. is said to have scammed more than 3 million investors out of a total of over $4 billion, according to law authorities.

A number of allegations have been made against her business, including that it attempted to bribe the presidents of Serbia and Bulgaria.

Ignatova may now add “Most Wanted” to her list of titles courtesy of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) in the United States.

The FBI put her on its top-ten list on Thursday and is offering a reward of up to one hundred thousand dollars for information that leads to her apprehension.

According to the FBI, Ignatova was last seen in Athens. This information comes from their investigation. This occurred in the year 2017

Ignatova was once included on the list of most sought individuals maintained by Europol; however, she is no longer on that list.

Ignatova is a German native who received her doctorate in economics and grew up in Germany. The ethnic Bulgarian was at the height of her popularity at the time when she was recognized for her sophisticated style and extravagant parties.

Even though there were already widespread rumors and suspicions about her actions at the time, she was nevertheless able to draw a gathering of more than 3,000 people to Wembley Arena in London in 2016 to listen to her speak.

Since that time, a class-action lawsuit has been filed against OneCoin, and her brother and other colleagues have been hauled to court for their involvement. The dramatic nature of the case has garnered attention from across the globe.

It has been said that Kate Winslet would have a role in a movie that is based on the experiences of a OneCoin investor. According to Variety, an agreement has been reached on a three-part documentary on Ignatova as well.

Categories
Bitcoin Blockchain News

Grayscale Sues the SEC After the Rejection of a Bitcoin ETF

Grayscale crypto
Grayscale: ZEN, XLM, ZEC May Be Securities

In response to the SEC’s denial of its application to convert the Grayscale Bitcoin Trust (GBTC) into a Bitcoin Spot Exchange-Traded Fund, leading asset management company Grayscale Investments has launched a lawsuit (ETF).

Grayscale’s plan to transform its $40 billion Bitcoin Trust into a spot ETF was rejected by the SEC on Wednesday because it didn’t fulfill typical consumer criteria, including those “intended to prevent fraudulent and manipulative actions and practices.”

As a result of this argument, the regulator stated the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE Arca) does not have an arrangement with another licensed platform that handles “substantial” volumes of BTC trading to monitor the price of bitcoin. If the NYSE Arca had accepted GBTC, it would have been listed on the NYSE Arca.

U.S. investors may not be adequately protected from market manipulation and volatility by the Grayscale Bitcoin Spot ETF plan.

Asset management business stated it disagrees with SEC’s decision, adding that the SEC is failing to provide equitable treatment to Bitcoin investment vehicles, as it has done to many Bitcoin Spot ETFs, shortly after the SEC rejected the application.

Only a few Bitcoin Futures ETF applications have been approved by the Securities and Exchange Commission in the past.

So, Grayscale has petitioned the US Court of Appeals in Washington, DC, to have its judgment reviewed. In a statement, the business said it will keep working to turn its GBTC into an exchange-traded fund (ETF).

On the topic, Grayscale Investment’s CEO, Michael Sonnenshein, said that the business is ready to “use all of the firm’s resources to fight for our clients and the equal regulatory treatment of bitcoin investment vehicles.”

After Jane Street and Virtu Financial (VIRT) agreed to be “approved participants” in Grayscale’s plan on June 27, Grayscale signed its own agreements.

Categories
Blockchain News NFT

Binance Makes TikTok’s Khaby Lame Brand Ambassador

Khaby Lame
Binance Makes TikTok's Khaby Lame Brand Ambassador

TikTok sensation Khaby Lame has been named Binance’s official brand ambassador. On Twitter, Binance announced the relationship, which they feel would enable them to promote a wide range of crypto education.

Khaby Lame, an Italian-born Senegalese who just surpassed 142 million TikTok followers, has lately become the most popular user.

Binance also announced the introduction of the Khaby Lame NFT line in its official statement. As a result, Binance expects the relationship will help dispel crypto and Web3 misconceptions, as well as expand the Binance ecosystem..

This isn’t Binance’s first foray into celebrity sponsorships; they’ve done it before. Recently, Binance partnered with Football superstar Cristiano Ronaldo on an exclusive multi-year NFT partnership. The Weeknd and Binance collaborated on the first-ever crypto-powered globe tour.

During this time, Khaby Lame has collaborated with a slew of well-known companies. Khaby has endorsement partnerships with Amazon, Netflix, Amazon Prime, and Dream 11.

During the Khaby announcement, Binance focused on a wide range of crypto education. A global Binance ecosystem has been envisioned in this movie, which is in line with previous recent Binance initiatives.

Binance has just teamed up with Cambodia’s security and exchange authorities to further grow the crypto sector. To further its reach in Southeast Asia, it obtained licenses in the Philippines for both virtual asset service providers and electronic money issuers.

In Europe, the Autorité des Marchés Financiers, a French market regulator, just approved Binance. As a result of the permission, a Binance subsidiary was officially registered as a supplier of digital assets services. As for the Gulf, Dubai and Bahrain have granted Binance digital asset licenses, allowing the company to operate there as well.

In addition, a $1 million BUSD scholarship program in Ukraine was established by the corporation.

The future of Binance’s worldwide dominance is in doubt, given the fierce competition it faces from Crypto.com and Coinbase, as well as the bleak market conditions.

Categories
Blockchain News Regulation

India Central Bankers Warn of the Dangers of Cryptocurrency

RBI
RBI India Determined to Ban Crypto

Governor Shaktikanta Das made a new statement on Thursday, a month after reiterating the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) position on cryptocurrencies. Last month, when the cryptocurrency market collapsed due to the Terra meltdown, Das issued a similar statement.

When several India investors lost money due to the crash, he cautioned investors about the volatility of cryptocurrencies. Due to their speculative nature, Das stated on Thursday that investing in cryptocurrencies is a treacherous endeavor.

The RBI Governor described the asset class as a “clear threat.” He continued by stating that we must be aware of the emerging threats on the horizon.

The public must be aware of the impending dangers. Clearly, cryptocurrencies pose a threat. Anything whose value is derived solely from conjecture, without any underlying basis, is speculation.

He indicated that cryptocurrency speculation is occurring under a sophisticated name.

Das explained that the potential for technology to disrupt financial stability must be avoided. However, he acknowledged that technology has expanded the financial sector’s reach and that its benefits must be fully exploited.

While technology has expanded the financial sector’s reach and its benefits must be maximized, its potential to disrupt financial stability must be avoided. As the financial system becomes increasingly digitized, cyber threats increase and require special consideration.

In light of last month’s crash of the Terra, the RBI Governor discussed the difficulties of regulating space. At the time, he stated that regulating cryptocurrencies is difficult because they have underlying value.

Previously, Das characterized the cryptocurrency market as a threat to macroeconomic and financial stability. Privately created cryptocurrency is a threat to our financial and macroeconomic stability, he stated.

Investors should remember that their investments are at their own risk. He added that the cryptocurrency has no underlying, not even tulips.

Categories
Blockchain News

Taiwan central bank governor talks interest-free CBDCs

taiwan
Taiwan central bank governor talks interest-free CBDCs

According to a story that was published on Wednesday by a local news site called bnext.com, Chin-long Yang, the governor of the Central Bank of the Republic of China (Taiwan), advocated a no-interest design for the pilot of the country’s central bank digital currency, also known as CBDC.

When asked to justify the decision, Yang said that a CBDC that offers interest payments on deposits of digital assets is likely to become an alternative for deposits of fiat currencies like the New Taiwan Dollar (NT$) held in banks.

According to Yang’s explanation, once the banks’ available deposits begin to diminish, this will lead to a matching rise in the cost of financing, which will, in turn, lead to an increase in the cost of borrowing money for customers.

Yang cautioned further that even interest-free CBDCs might lead to “digital bank runs” during times of financial instability, which could swiftly snowball into a liquidity crisis for financial institutions. 

Yang cautioned further that even interest-free CBDCs might lead to “digital bank runs” during times of financial instability, which could swiftly snowball into a liquidity crisis for financial institutions.  Nevertheless, the governor of the country’s central bank acknowledged in recent years a significant increase in the demand for electronic payment solutions:

In Taiwan, the percentage of electronic payments as a proportion of total payments is expected to reach 60 percent in the first quarter of 2022, up from 40 percent in 2017. 

As a result, there is a likelihood that there will be a growing demand among the general public for a CBDC that offers a secure and trustworthy kind of digital payment solution that has no commission, no credit risk, and no liquidity risk associated with it.

In the present phase of its CBDC pilot program, Taiwan is in the second stage, during which the country’s central bank is supplying the CBDC to five chosen Taiwanese banks for distribution among customers of those institutions. Next an analysis of the outcomes of the pilot program, the central bank will go on to the following phases. 

However, it was previously determined via experiments that the distributed ledger technology that is a part of the CBDC is incapable of handling high-frequency consumer transactions in large volumes. In the case that the power goes out, another issue that raises concerns is the fact that the payment system would lose its functioning.

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Blockchain News

Jon Cunliffe Compares Crypto Meltdown Victims To Amazons

Jon Cunliffe
Jon Cunliffe Compares Crypto Meltdown Victims To Amazons

Bank of England (BoE) deputy governor Jon Cunliffe believes that institutional investors will emerge from crypto’s present crisis with the commercial might of Amazon and eBay at their disposal.

Cunliffe compared the current crypto winter to the dotcom catastrophe of the 1990s, which saw several e-commerce platforms including Global Crossing, British business Boo.com, and American online shop Webvan, among others, lose their stock values.

Amazon (AMZN), IBM (IBM), and eBay (EBAY) are just a few of the companies that made it through the dotcom bust and are now emerging as major players in their respective areas. In the long run, Cunliffe expects the same outcome for investors who weather the crypto-winter.

Further, the public servant, who is 69 years old, equated internet technology to the current notion of cryptocurrency. Cryptocurrency technology and finance will continue beyond this weak market because it has the potential for tremendous efficiency and changes in market structure, like the dot-com boom.

After mentioning the Bank of England’s interest in CBDCs and stablecoins in April last year, Cunliffe presented an update on the work the bank has made in exploring these concepts.

A CBDC or a virtual currency that might be used in stablecoins created by private enterprises, he says, is the preferred option for the country’s financial industry, although he adds that more research is being conducted.

You may have heard about Tether recently launching a stablecoin based on the British Pound Sterling known as GBPT, which is expected to become live in early July. Tether said that the UK government’s support for crypto was a crucial factor in the decision to launch the program.

Two months ago, the British government announced ambitions to turn the nation into a worldwide hub of crypto technology. Rishi Sunak, chancellor of the Exchequer, has said that stablecoins would be integrated into the country’s financial system as part of these ambitions.

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Altcoins Bitcoin Blockchain Ethereum News Technology

Proposals to Exempt Crypto Issuers from Russia Taxes Approved

Russia
Proposals to Exempt Crypto Issuers from Russia Taxes Approved

Reuters reported that Russia policymakers signed a measure to exclude token issuance from paying value-added taxes (VAT) only days after the country’s officials submitted a plan to oversee the illicit issue of crypto if authorized.

Members of Russia’s Federal Assembly, the State Duma, passed the draft legislation in its second and third readings earlier this week. The chamber has 450 members who are in charge of establishing national policy.

Instead of penalizing people and businesses for illicit cryptocurrency issuance, the newly developed plan proposes to enable digital asset issuers to produce and launch tokens free of VAT.

An investigation by other agencies is required before any of the written legislation can be implemented, according to a report in the media.

The Federation Council, often known as the upper house, which represents the interests of the nation’s regions, would then vote on the measure. Russia President, Vladimir Putin, will have to sign it before it can take effect.

Digital asset issuers will be free from paying VAT under the proposed legislation as well as new tax rates on earnings produced from the selling of cryptocurrencies.

The current exchange rate for crypto and traditional assets is both 20%. Russian businesses would be subject to a 13 percent tax, while international businesses would be subject to a 15 percent tax under the proposed legislation.

A legislative framework for the usage of cryptocurrencies in Russia is being developed by Russian financial authorities and legislators.

The Bank of Russia has previously advocated a complete ban on Bitcoin mining and crypto activity. Financial authorities in China, on the other hand, feel that regulating crypto assets instead of outright banning them is the better option.

President Putin pushed both committees to come to an agreement on the legal status of digital assets as the debate raged on. Cryptocurrencies are currently being defined as legal tender by both the U.S. Congress and the state legislatures.

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Bitcoin Blockchain News

Microstrategy Purchases $10 Million in Bitcoin

MicroStrategy bitcoin
MicroStrategy Wants to Buy Even More Bitcoin

At a time when Bitcoin prices are expected to decline further, Michael Saylor’s Microstrategy has revealed its current stance on the cryptocurrency market. In terms of institutional investment, the corporation is the biggest.

On Wednesday, the SEC reported that the corporation has added up to 480 BTC in the last several months. For nearly $10 million in cash, MicroStrategy bought around 480 BTC between May 3 and June 28. The average cost of a Bitcoin purchase, including all fees and costs, is about $20,817.

The total number of Bitcoins controlled by the corporation now stands at 129,699. According to the report, MicroStrategy and its subsidiaries possessed 129,699 Bitcoin as of June 28, 2022. For an overall purchase price of $3.98 billion, including fees and expenditures, they were purchased at an average buying price of $30,664 per BTC.

The CEO of Microstrategy, Michael Saylor, made the news on Twitter. At an average price of $20,817 per BTC, MicroStrategy has acquired an additional 480 bitcoins for $10.0 million. Since 6/28/22, MicroStrategy has had 129,699 Bitcoin worth $3.98 BTC at an average price of $30,664 per BTC in their possession.

Speculation over the company’s Bitcoin holdings was rife earlier this month, after a precipitous drop in Bitcoin prices. Microstrategy’s strategy was ready to manage the dip, according to Saylor, who made it clear that erratic activity was expected.

As recently as last year, he claimed that his business intelligence organization had foreseen the volatility of the Bitcoin market prior to implementing the plan. He said that his company had set up its financial sheet in such a way that it could keep onto Bitcoin even if things became tough.

Earlier in the day, Bitcoin’s price fell below the $20,000 level for a short while. There have been no drops below $20,000 in a week for Bitcoin. According to CoinMarketCap, Bitcoin is now trading at $20,063, down 4.43 percent in the previous 24 hours.

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Altcoins Blockchain News

Roger Ver denies owing CoinFLEX $47M USDC

Roger Ver
Roger Ver denies owing CoinFLEX $47M USDC

Roger Ver, an early investor in Bitcoin and a supporter of Bitcoin Cash, has fought back against accusations made by the cryptocurrency investing platform CoinFLEX involving a claimed debt of $47 million.

In a tweet published on Tuesday, Ver said that he had not defaulted on a debt to a counter-party and claimed that the cryptocurrency company owed him a significant amount of money. Ver did not specifically identify CoinFLEX in his post.

The denial came in response to reports that circulated on social media suggesting that the BCH proponent was engaged in the platform’s decision to block withdrawals after a high-net-worth customer who had stakes in several prominent crypto businesses failed to settle their bills.

Shortly after the announcement was made, the CEO of CoinFLEX, Mark Lamb, came to Twitter to assert that the firm had a formal contract with Ver, which required Ver to personally guarantee any negative equity on his CoinFLEX account and top up margin on a consistent basis.

According to Lamb, CoinFLEX sent Ver with a notice of default and was speaking to him on calls often about this matter with the purpose of resolving it, despite the fact that the company claimed it did not owe Ver anything.

The chief executive officer of CoinFLEX expressed his dismay at the fact that Roger Ver had to resort to such strategies in order to divert attention away from his legal obligations and duties.

On Tuesday, it was announced that a CoinFLEX account controlled by a person of high integrity and large wealth had suffered losses of $47 million since the account had been permitted to approach negative equity without being liquidated.

Starting on June 28, the platform intended to address its liquidity issue by creating a new token known as Recovery Value USD (rvUSD), and it anticipated that users will once again be able to withdraw funds beginning on June 30.

Following remarks made by Lamb and Ver on Twitter, the price of CoinFLEX’s native token, which is called FLEX, has decreased by more than 84 percent in the last 30 days, falling from $1.19 to $0.80.

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Blockchain News

In the Face of Market Turmoil, Kaiko Receives $53M in Funding

Kaiko
In the Face of Market Turmoil, Kaiko Receives $53M in Funding

Kaiko, a blockchain data supplier for institutional investors and businesses, revealed on Tuesday that it had raised $53 million in Series B fundraising.

Eight Roads led the round, with participation from Revaia and previous investors such as Alven, Point9, Anthemis, and Underscore also participating.

Cryptocurrency’s recent downturn has removed more than $2 trillion from the $3 trillion recorded in 2021, making this current revelation even more significant.

Digital asset data provider notes that fresh funding will assist strengthen its position as a worldwide industry standard for central and decentralized blockchain data services.

As of 2014, Kaiko has been providing a wide range of market data, pricing services, indexes, and industry research in the crypto and DeFi space. Customers and partners like as Deutsche Boerse, ICE Global Network, Messari, and Paxos may benefit from the company’s data offerings to better analyze market patterns.

As of January, Kaiko has released its first ranking of cryptocurrency exchanges, with the goal of providing a comprehensive framework for comprehending the fragmented market.

Ambre Soubiran, Kaiko’s worldwide head, said that the company intends to consolidate its position as a leading provider of institutional data solutions in the next year after receiving the fresh capital.

‘Over the coming year, we will strengthen our position as an industry leader in institutional data solutions, acting as a key bridge between centralized and decentralized financial markets,’ added Soubiran.

Kaiko intends to increase its worldwide footprint in order to reach a broader audience with additional funding.

There are currently four worldwide offices in Paris, London, New York, and Singapore that enable the Paris-based crypto analytics organization to sell its goods and services in various areas.

ICE Global Network, Deutsche Börse, Oanda, and Bloomberg are just a few of the notable companies that have partnered with Kaiko.

Additionally, the company has negotiated deals with asset managers in Europe and North America who have not been named.

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Blockchain News

Robinhood Has Listed Chainlink (LINK)

Robinhood
New York fines Robinhood Crypto $30 million

Chainlink (LINK) has been added to Robinhood cryptocurrency trading platform. When it was first launched, the exchange was only able to handle tokens such as the Shiba Inu, Solana (SOL), and Polygon (POLY) (MATIC).

The listing was announced by Robinhood through Twitter. Chainlink’s price has risen by roughly 5% since then. At the time of this writing, LINK is trading at $7.01 per token. The 24-hour trading volume of Token has increased by over 50% to $605 million.

With a market worth of nearly $3.2 billion, Chainlink is the 22nd most valuable cryptocurrency. The token’s future might be greatly aided by this recent listing. Some tokens, like LINk, made it through the current market crash. In the last 30 days, it has fallen by a meager 4%.

Chainlink revealed earlier last month that PancakeSwap has incorporated Chainlink keepers into the BNB network. Automating the CAKE/USD prediction market will make it more safe for customers. The Chainlink price data was previously incorporated to assist safeguard the prediction market, according to the report.

Meanwhile, 15 separate Chainlink services were integrated last week over 5 different chains, totaling 15 integrations. Ethereum, BNB chain, Avalanche, Moonbeam, and Polygon are just a few of the prominent chains on this list. Hybrid smart contracts are the goal of this project, which is geared at Web3 developers.

A report claims that Sam Bankman-FTX Fried’s wants to purchase Robinhood. This is a topic of debate inside the exchange. However, no official announcement has been made in this regard.

The FTX has not yet approached Robinhood with an acquisition offer. In the meanwhile, the share price of Robinhood has increased by nearly 25% in the last 5 days. It is now selling for an average of $9.03 per unit. Its stock, on the other hand, has fallen by 76% since it became public.

When asked about a potential relationship with the Crypto exchange, Bankman Fried said that they are open to the idea. In spite of this, there are no active debates on the subject.

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Bitcoin Blockchain News

Binance Executives Continue To Load Up On Bitcoin

Binance
CZ Clarifies Binance KYC Leading to Loss of Users

The largest cryptocurrency exchange in the world, Binance, and its executives have shown strong support for Bitcoin despite its price decline amid intense market pressure. Brian Shroder, CEO of Binance, stated that he will continue to purchase Bitcoin during price declines, just as he did when Bitcoin was at $29,000 and $19,000.

Business Insider reported on June 28 that Binance.US CEO Brian Shroder intends to continue supporting Bitcoin and accumulating it during price declines.

Shroder remains bullish on Bitcoin despite its price plummeting by 70 percent. His orders to purchase Bitcoin (BTC) at $29,000 and $19,000 were executed successfully.

“I continue to buy, I’m continuing my personal investment journey, and obviously I believe in crypto for the long term on a personal and professional level.”

In fact, Binance’s CEO “CZ” has always supported Bitcoin, holding a bullish long-term outlook on the industry. The CEO of Binance disclosed that he holds no fiat currency, only cryptocurrencies.

Brian Shroder, the CEO of the United States, invests in over 30 distinct digital assets. There are a number of intriguing projects, coins, and tokens associated with technology-related crypto assets. The token’s utility, governance structure, and economics are distinct.

In addition, Shroder is optimistic about Helium because of its utility for Internet of Things devices. The blockchain-powered wireless network transmits and receives data to and from the internet, and rewards users who host device hotspots with HNT tokens.

Since November’s all-time high, the price of Helium’s HNT tokens has decreased by 80 percent. Currently, the price is $10.90 per unit.

Binance.

After recently announcing zero-fee trading for Bitcoin, the U.S. CEO announced his exclusive support for Bitcoin.

Brian Shroder intends to cultivate favorable user sentiment toward Bitcoin trading in order to attract new users to his platform. Similar to Robinhood, Binance.US would not earn a spread on its no-fee transactions. Instead, the exchange will generate revenue from new staking services and other sources.

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Bitcoin Blockchain News Technology

Grayscale seeks Wall Street partnerships for a Bitcoin ETF

Grayscale
Grayscale seeks Wall Street partnerships for a Bitcoin ETF

Jane Street and Virtu Financial (VIRT) have been named as approved participants in Grayscale Investments’ Grayscale Bitcoin Trust (GBTC-USD), according to Yahoo Finance.

To be ready for a potential SEC approval of the Bitcoin Trust’s conversion to an Exchange-Traded Fund (ETF) on July 6, the business struck an agreement with the market makers, according to the article.

An exchange-traded fund (ETF) is a collection of securities designed to follow an index. ETFs allow investors to increase their diversification while decreasing their overall exposure and risk.

Grayscale’s worldwide head of ETFs, David LaValle, commented on the new alliances, noting that the deal will go into force after the SEC gave its clearance. That would make the company seem “operationally ready” for ETF designation, he said.

There were a lot of potential players, but Jane Street and Virtu have signed on the dotted line. According to LaValle, “it’s a significant vote of confidence that the market is ready for GBTC to become an ETF.

Although multiple financial companies have applied for a Bitcoin Spot ETF, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has refused to approve the idea.

However, the SEC rejected an application for a Bitcoin ETF conversion from asset management firm Skybridge Capital and financial adviser First Trust earlier this year.

Concerns about the market’s maturity and the possibility of market manipulation are to blame for the continuous rejections. Grayscale, on the other hand, is hopeful that the regulator will rule in its favor next month.

“We are unambiguously dedicated to turning GBTC to an ETF,” Michael Sonnenshein, CEO of Grayscale, said while detailing the company’s progress since applying for an ETF.

He went on to say that the company’s goal of bringing well-known virtual asset investment vehicles to American investors is aligned with attaining a favorable conclusion with the SEC.

When the Grayscale Bitcoin Trust was first introduced in 2013, it offered a way for investors to purchase and sell Bitcoins using their brokerage accounts. According to GBTC’s records, more than 850,000 U.S. investors control a combined 3.4% of the entire Bitcoin supply.

When Grayscale filed Form 19b-4 with the SEC last year to turn the asset into a Bitcoin Spot ETF, it began its ETF conversion process.

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Altcoins Blockchain News

Hedge Funds Dump USDT? Tether’s CTO addresses rumors

Tether
Hedge Funds Dump USDT? Tether's CTO addresses rumors

Earlier this week, Tether Chief Technology Officer, Paolo Ardoino, addressed what he termed “open and concerted assaults” by certain hedge funds against USDT. TERRA/demise LUNA’s has sparked a new round of fear-mongering, according to him.

Recently, USDT’s status as the leading dollar-pegged stablecoin was put to the test. There has been a lot of speculation in the crypto community about recent events, including a new preference for USDC and USDT’s constant depeg.

“Open assaults” on USDT are being done by hedge funds that have conspired to destroy USDT’s liquidity by shorting substantially and then re-purchasing at a lower price, Paolo Ardoino claims in an extensive Twitter thread.

Tether is not or was not 100 percent supported, and tether has or previously had exposure to Evergrande and 85 percent exposure to Chinese CP, among the FUD, pushed by hedge funds, according to him.

According to him, the attackers have not stopped despite all the openness tether has shown and their “commitments to phase out exposure to CP to shift into U.S. Treasuries.”

When it comes to Tether’s commercial paper exposure, Ardoino said that it has been cut from $45 billion to only $8.4 billion. In the wake of recent challenges for hedge funds, he repeated Tether’s 100% support and referred to them as “holy heroes” in the industry.

Co-founder of Tether and BlockV CEO Reeve Collins spoke with CNBC on the young DeFi market, adding that difficulties are to be expected when a new industry emerges.

A recent rescue of several failing crypto businesses by FTX was also brought up by the speaker.

While it’s nice to see that FTX has taken the initiative, they have the financial wherewithal to step in and take the company to the next level, even if they had an excellent audience and a great product for a while.

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Bitcoin Blockchain Price Analysis

Bitcoin (BTC) Forecast 06/27

Bitcoin inflows
Bitcoin exchange volumes have dropped to multi-year lows

According to information provided by Cointelegraph Markets Pro and TradingView, the Bitcoin to US Dollar exchange rate followed stock markets in their downward trend as the month of June entered its last week.

After a relatively calm weekend, the price of the pair had dropped below $21,000 when this article was written, marking the first time in three days that it had fallen below that threshold.

Bitcoin is still trading at a price that is much lower than its 200-week moving average (WMA), which is now sitting at $22,430. Despite the widespread lack of optimistic confidence among traders, investors continued to maintain their predictions for a further price decline.

“Bitcoin has voiced its opposition to the $21K support. That’s not a problem at all. We have a system in place for the levels, “A tweet by the contributor to Cointelegraph Michael van de Poppe during the day’s Twitter discussion is below.

In a subsequent piece, it was stated that further lows were on the way, which would attract traders to establish long positions. There was support located at $20,325 and close to $20,100; however, if neither of these levels held, a drop below $19,000 as possible.

In the meanwhile, another trader and analyst by the name of Credible Crypto outlined the conditions that must be met in order to be certain that this month’s lows of $17,600 would not be challenged. It would be necessary for him to go down to the low-thirties-thousand-dollar area.

In a video update, he said that “I don’t believe we’re going to see new lows” if the company is able to “reclaim $25,000 and push up to the low $30,000s” (that is, $28, $29, and $30,000) at that time.

Accordingly, “I’d anticipate it to happen before we recoup $25,000 if we’re going to see new lows.”

Bitcoin was on course to complete its first-ever month below the 200-day moving average (200WMA) on the day, which would distinguish the current bear market from others that have occurred in the past.

In recent days, large declines in BTC supply have been seen across a majority of exchanges. This comes after “whales” recently made news for purchasing coins for roughly $20,000 each.

According to information provided by the on-chain analytics company Glassnode, the highest cumulative change in BTC that was not retained on exchanges occurred on June 26.

As a result of assets moving to other locations, the 30-day moving average of the change in supply that was retained on exchanges decreased by 153,849 BTC.

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Bitcoin Blockchain News Opinion People

Jiang Zhuoer disputes $4 billion in borrower loans

Bitcoin price
Bitcoin (BTC) Declines Further

Former BTC.Top CEO Jiang Zhuoer claims that the number of loans to bitcoin miners that are at risk is much lower than what has been reported. He argues that there are only a finite number of mining rigs that can be used for mortgages and a finite number of loans due to a lack of institutional support and poor liquidity.

Although the Bitcoin price crash has made it difficult for mining companies to repay their $4 billion in loans backed by mining equipment as collateral, a recent Bloomberg report stated that this is the case. As the market continues to decline, mining rigs are being sold at a discount.

It was revealed by Colin Wu in a tweet on Monday that Jiang Zhuoer thinks the data on bitcoin miner loans is exaggerated, according to Colin Wu. On the other hand, no loans were ever made to Bitcoin miners for any of their rigs at all. Due to a lack of companies that could control or evaluate mining rigs, only a small number of mining rigs were eligible for loans. A large number of cryptocurrency miners were unable to obtain loans as a result of the issue.

Loans are available from cryptocurrency investment firms like Galaxy Digital, NYDIG, and BlockFi. Because banks won’t loan money to upgrade mining equipment, these loans are secured by mining equipment.

Ethan Vera, a co-founder of Luxor Technologies in Seattle, estimated that mining rigs were collateral for $4 billion in loans. Lenders like Babel Finance have made token-backed loans popular, but Vera says mining equipment is a better security.

Additionally, the decline in Bitcoin’s value is hurting miners. Some Bitcoin miners must pay back loans and put up collateral to cover equipment purchases they made with Bitcoin.

According to a JPMorgan report from May and June, 20 percent of all reported Bitcoin sales came from publicly listed Bitcoin miners. As a result, the current rate of Bitcoin sell-offs is likely to scupper any hopes of a rebound in the Bitcoin price.

Since mid-May and again in June, the difficulty of mining Bitcoin has decreased due to the crypto market crash. On the other hand, the hashrate dropped from 266 EH/s on June 8 to under 200 EH/s on June 26. The sudden drop in power demand is directly related to the decline in hash rate. Mines may have been shut down or sold because of this.

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Blockchain News

Anonymous has vowed to expose Do Kwon’s alleged misdeeds

Anonymous
Anonymous has vowed to expose Do Kwon's alleged misdeeds

Anonymous, a hacktivist collective, has vowed to “make sure” Terra co-founder Do Kwon is “brought to justice as quickly as possible” for his role in the May 2016 collapse of Terra (LUNA) and TerraUSD (UST).

Do Kwon was implicated in the collapse of the stable coin Basis Cash in late 2020 under the pseudonym “Rick Sanchez” in a video released by the Anonymous hacker group on Sunday? The video purportedly rehashed a laundry list of Kwon’s alleged wrongdoings, including his alleged withdrawal of $80 million per month from LUNA and UST before its collapse.

Unfortunately, there is nothing that can be done to undo the harm that you have already done, Do Kwon, if you are reading this. Only by holding you responsible and ensuring that you are brought to justice as quickly as possible can we move forward.”

Since Do Kwon joined the crypto sphere, the hacking organization has promised to investigate his activities to reveal his alleged misdeeds.

Do Kwon’s “whole history since he joined the crypto realm to see what we can learn and put to flight,” Anonymous claimed.

They also took issue with Kwon’s arrogant methods of mocking his competition and critics and behaving as if he would never fail.

Decentralized multinational activist group Anonymous (Anonymous) was founded in 2003 on 4chan and is renowned for conducting cyberattacks against government institutions and private enterprises.

Elon Musk, the CEO of Tesla Motors, was accused in June of 2021 by the same YouTube channel of killing lives by manipulating cryptocurrency markets with his power and influence on Twitter. 3.4 million people had seen the video as of Monday morning.

Notably, there are a number of YouTube channels claiming to be connected to the hacking collective Anonymous. However, because of the group’s decentralized and anonymous structure, most people agree that there isn’t an official YouTube channel for it.

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Blockchain News

Harmony Protocol offers $1M for stolen $100M assets

Harmony Protocol
Harmony Protocol offers $1M for stolen $100M assets

If the hacker can return the stolen goods, which are valued at $100 million, Harmony Protocol will pay them a reward of $1 million. This $1 million reward offered by Harmony is also being offered by the staff at Harmony. There would be “no criminal charges” sought after the cash are returned, according to the team’s tweet.

An assault was launched against the Horizon Bridge leading to the Harmony Layer-1 chain, which resulted in the theft of assets worth more than $100 million. Horizon functioned as an intermediary between Ethereum, Binance Chain, and Bitcoin transactions.

Twitter was used to make the announcement to the general public that the network had started an investigation into the event and was receiving help from national authorities.

The team behind the Harmony Protocol has issued a reward of one million dollars for the recovery of the one hundred million dollars worth of bitcoin that was taken in the assault on the Horizon bridge. The hacker will also get the prize if they provide information on how the assault was carried out. If the monies are recovered, the team said, there would be no further action taken against the hackers in the form of criminal proceedings.

However, it seems that crypto Twitter believes that a reward of one million dollars for a hack of one hundred million dollars is insufficient.

The founder and CEO of Harmony said in another tweet that the company has not discovered a probable smart contact vulnerability that prompted the assault. He further noted that more information has been obtained that demonstrates that the security of the private keys has been breached.

Additionally, he said that in order to encrypt and safely store private keys, Harmony made use of a passphrase and a key management system. However, the attacker was successful in obtaining some of these private keys, decrypting them, and then using them to sign illegal transactions.

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Bitcoin Price Analysis

Bitcoin (BTC) Market Update 06/26

what is hashrate
Explaining Bitcoin HashRate: What to Know

On June 26, Bitcoin (BTC) made the most of the weekend’s volatility by seeing BTC/USD reach its highest level in more than a week after being squeezed.

The largest cryptocurrency reached a price of $21,868 on Bitstamp, and data from Cointelegraph Markets Pro and TradingView tracked it during this time.

A reversal then set in under $21,500 just hours before the weekly close, with Bitcoin still on track to close out its first “green” weekly candle since May. This occurred just hours before the weekly close.

The occurrence came after a series of warnings that a return to volatile conditions, both up and down, was possible during low-liquidity weekend trading. Despite this, on-chain data confirmed what had appeared to be buying by Bitcoin’s largest-volume investor cohort just before the uptick.

A popular analytics resource known as Game of Trades made the observation that “unusual whale activity detected in Bitcoin.”

“The demand for the supply that is being held by entities with balances of 1,000 to 10,000 BTC just experienced a significant uptick. Let’s see if the trend continues, shall we?”

A chart that accompanied the article and was provided by the on-chain analytics company Glassnode showed a significant shift upward from the time that BTC/USD reached its monthly low of $17,600.

According to a report by Cointelegraph, whales had been eagerly purchasing BTC below $20,000, which resulted in the formation of new support clusters.

The monthly close appeared to be on track to make June 2018 Bitcoin’s worst June on record, with losses of almost 33 percent for the month.

According to information gathered from an on-chain monitoring resource called Coinglass, not only would this month have the worst performance since before the bear market bottom in 2018, but it would also tie with May 2021.

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Blockchain News

Morgan Creek Digital is rescuing BlockFi to counter FTX

BlockFi
FTX may buy BlockFi for 99% below its valuation

In response to FTX’s bailout, Morgan Creek Digital, BlockFi long-time supporter, is reportedly looking to raise $250 million, as reported by cryptocurrency news website Coindesk. BlockFi’s long-term supporters are claimed to be devastated by the rescue, which might wipe them out.

FTX has inked a $250 million revolving credit facility agreement with BlockFi, and the firm’s shareholders are concerned that this might leave them with nothing in the event of FTX’s takeover of BlockFi.

FTX’s $250 million credit line to BlockFi provides Morgan Creek Digital managing partner Mark Yusko the benefit of purchasing BlockFi “at virtually zero price,” according to the leaked conversation. Existing shareholders of FTX stand to lose a lot if the company goes through with this plan.

In the event that FTX makes this purchase, it will also wipe out the business’s management and any workers who have stock options, in addition to any equity investors who have invested in the company before. The creators of BlockFi, according to Yusko, had a good reason for agreeing to the rules in advance, as shown in the leaked phone conversation transcripts.

It was the only one of numerous emergency finance proposals BlockFi received that didn’t require the rescuer to take a stake in the company’s customer assets. As a result, if BlockFi had declined to accept FTX’s offer, its depositors would have been left with a short period of time without compensation.

According to reports, Citigroup (C) and Akin Gump, two legal firms Celsius recruited for assistance on various solutions, have purportedly urged Celsius to file for bankruptcy.

Someone informed of this situation says that a Goldman Sachs representative is looking for commitments from Web3 crypto fund investors, funds that specialize in distressed assets, and conventional financial institutions with a lot of capital.

In order to complete this transaction, Goldman Sachs will need to find $2 billion in new capital from investors. In the case of a bankruptcy filing, the Celsius transaction would allow investors to acquire Celsius’ assets at significant discounts, according to the sources cited.

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Blockchain News

Goldman Sachs wants $2 billion to buy Celsius Assets

goldman sachs
Goldman Sachs wants $2 billion to buy Celsius Assets

Celsius Network, a crypto-lending startup, looks to be on its way out, and Wall Street behemoth Goldman Sachs is apparently planning to buy it out.

Despite Celsius’ financial difficulties, Goldman Sachs is reportedly preparing to raise $2 billion from investors in order to buy Celsius’ assets.

In the event Celsius files for bankruptcy, the transaction would allow investors to acquire Celsius’ assets at substantial discounts. As of early this month, Celsius had more than $11 billion in assets under management and had also lent a total of $8 billion to its customers.

Celsius had major liquidity concerns when the cryptocurrency market collapsed. A report says Goldman Sachs is looking for support from Web3 cryptocurrency funds and traditional financial institutions that have a lot of money. Bank of America is also in contact with distressed asset funds.

The majority of Celsius’ assets are cryptocurrencies, which will be sold at low prices and then managed by the investors that participate in Celsius.

According to Arthur Hayes, the former CEO of BitMEX and co-founder of the exchange, Goldman Sachs isn’t investing any of its own money into the planned deal.

Please don’t trust Goldman Sachs until they expressly state that they are risking their own money. GS is doing what advisory banks do, bringing together a group of investors, and helping them arrange the acquisition of troubled assets for a hefty fee, he tweeted on Saturday.

After successfully purchasing Celsius’ assets and restoring withdrawals, he believes the community should celebrate. There is little doubt that a full-blown crypto bull run would be sparked if creditors were able to recoup some of their losses.

Before depositors are able to get their money back from bankrupt CENTRALISED crypto lenders, users should see any ‘bailouts’ as public relations gimmicks.

It’s safe to assume that Celsius is on the verge of going out of business. An Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld restructuring counsel has been recruited by the crypto lender, as previously reported. To assist it prepare for bankruptcy, advising company Alvarez & Marsal has hired additional experts from Celsius, the Wall Street Journal reported on Friday.

Since halting withdrawals, Celsius has been quiet. “Our focus remains to be stabilizing our liquidity and operations,” the company said in a notice on June 19. It’s going to take some time.”

The corporation has previously said that it will no longer organize Q&A sessions with members of the community.

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