https://en.cryptonomist.ch/2023/05/24/crypto-wallet-ledger-recover-postponed/

The hardware wallet company Ledger, after a rather disastrous week marked by a barrage of community criticism, postpones the launch of Ledger Recover. 

Below are all the details. 

What happened to the wallet company Ledger?

In a Twitter Space on 23 May, attended by more than 13,000 users, Ledger President and CEO Pascal Gauthier said it had been a “humbling experience” and a tough lesson in communication: 

“This experience was very humbling. We miscommunicated at the launch of this product; it was not our intention to take people by surprise. So for that reason, we understand the direction of the community and apologize for the miscommunication.”

Ledger found itself in a public relations nightmare after revealing plans on 16 May to introduce a key recovery tool called Ledger Recover:  

The firmware update would allow users who have lost their private seed phrase to retrieve it through an optional feature.

The company faced backlash from some members of the cryptographic community who believed this would add a “backdoor” for removing a user’s private keys from the device.

Ledger’s future intentions 

Gauthier revealed that in response to concerns about the launch of Ledger Recover, the company would accelerate its plans to make more of its code base open source. 

It will start with the core components of its operating system and Ledger Recover: 

Charles Guillemet, chief technology officer of Ledger, said that in the coming days a white paper on the Recover protocol will become open source along with technical blog posts to “explain the principles of Recover” and to provide more detailed explanations of how the process works. 

“It’s going to be very easy and clear for every single cryptography and security expert to have a look at the protocol to get more guarantees and understand how it works.”

Guillemet noted that this would also allow developers to create their own backup provider for seed phrase fragments rather than using the one offered by Ledger: 

Ledger community discontent following the release of the latest feature 

As anticipated, several members of the cryptocurrency community, including Ledger wallet owners, took to social media to express their discontent following the release of Ledger’s latest feature. 

The wallet provider shared that Ledger Recover is an optional subscription for users who wish to back up their secret recovery phrase. In fact, the company had explained: 

“You don’t have to use it, and you can continue to manage your recovery phrase yourself if that’s why you bought a ledger.”

However, the concept infuriated many in the cryptocurrency community, including security specialists.

In particular, Mudit Gupta, chief information security officer at Polygon Labs, shared: 

Investor and podcaster Chris Dunn, referring to the Ledger data leak that exposed users’ information in 2020, also wrote: 

“First, they exposed their customers’ mailing addresses, phone numbers, and email addresses. And now they’ve put a back door into the seed sentences. It’s time to say goodbye to Ledger.”

https://en.cryptonomist.ch/2023/05/24/solana-releases-plugin-chatgpt/

Important crypto news: the Solana Foundation recently released a plugin for ChatGPT that integrates artificial intelligence with the layer 1 blockchain. 

In this regard, Solana co-founder Anatoly Yakovenko expressed his belief that every app should be developed in orientation to the increasingly impactful world of AI. 

Below are all the details. 

Solana’s integration with ChatGPT is the benchmark for AI

As anticipated above, the Solana Foundation said Tuesday that it has created an open source reference implementation that allows users to interact with the Solana network directly from ChatGPT with a plug-in available for download on Github. 

In this regard, the Solana Foundation said the following in a note: 

“This Solana Labs integration serves as a reference for how AI can facilitate understanding of Solana data and protocols, or surface data about Solana’s IT infrastructure and DeFi projects.”

Adding further that the plug-in can be used to buy NFTs, transfer tokens, inspect transactions, interpret public account data, and find NFT collections based on floor price.

Solana co-founder and CEO of Solana Labs, Anatoly Yakovenko, said artificial intelligence would make Solana’s blockchain more usable and understandable: 

“Every developer building consumer oriented apps should think about how they will interact with their app through an AI model because this is a new paradigm for telling computers what to do.”

Meanwhile, the Solana Foundation said it has increased the amount available in a previously announced strategic grant program focused on artificial intelligence from $1 million to $10 million. 

The foundation has already received fifty applications and continues to accept them for new projects. Specifically, the statement reads the following: 

“The Solana Foundation has also kicked off a 3-month accelerator program for college students that has an entire cohort dedicated to experimenting with blockchain and artificial intelligence.”

Surge in Solana’s activity due to high fees from Bitcoin and Ethereum

Based on the data, we know that Solana saw a surge in activity this month as higher fees on Ethereum and Bitcoin prompted some users to explore alternatives. 

The network saw the seven-day moving average of new addresses reach 323,000 last week, the highest number since June 2022, according to data from The Block . 

This month, more new addresses have already been added than the protocol has seen in each of the past six months, the data show.

Meanwhile, the number of active addresses that have sent or received funds on the Bitcoin network has dropped to its lowest level since July 2021. 

In addition, The Block’s research analyst Rebecca Stevens, noting that a similar increase in new addresses was occurring on platforms scaling Ethereum, such as Polygon, said the following: 

“The surge appeared to start before May when fees started to increase on Ethereum and people were looking for other places to transact, but that second rally could also be related to Ethereum finality issues.”

Finally, referring to two incidents in recent weeks that saw Ethereum’s beacon chain briefly stop finalizing blocks, she added: 

“Solana has faced a lot of pushback for its outages, so the recent Ethereum network issues may be putting things into perspective.”

Meanwhile, Solana’s native SOL token, which experienced a drastic drop last year due to the collapse of cryptocurrency exchange FTX, has rebounded since then, rising 101% since the beginning of the year. 

On Tuesday it rose 2.6% to trade at $20.03, according to TradingView data.

The CEO of Solana on ChatGPT: as revolutionary as the first introduction of the computer 

On 23 May, Solana Labs co-founder and CEO Anatoly Yakovenko discussed his company’s recent focus on artificial intelligence and ChatGPT. In particular, Yakovenko called artificial intelligence an important change. 

In addition, Yakovenko said the following during a discussion: 

“I think the natural language interface that ChatGPT has enabled is cool and interesting. It’s as big a change as when Microsoft Windows and the computer mouse were first introduced.”

Not only that, as anticipated, he also said that developers creating consumer apps should consider how their apps can be used through AI. 

He also suggested that cryptocurrency APIs are ideal for interaction with AI due to their programmability, especially compared to centralized finance.

Yakovenko then highlighted Solana’s existing ChatGPT plug-in mentioned above, which allows users and developers to retrieve on-chain data on NFT accounts and collections.

Although these features have been previously announced, Yakovenko suggested that Solana users could eventually perform transactions from a “ChatGPT loop,” meaning that users could perform transactions within the chatbot itself.

Increasing Solana addresses, but decreasing on-chain activity, why?

As of this month, Solana has demonstrated growth in its user base, with 5.4 million new addresses joining the blockchain. 

This increase represents the highest number of new addresses added since October 2022, suggesting increased interest in Solana’s blockchain.

Typically, a surge of new addresses suggests a solid foundation for a blockchain, reflecting growing community adoption and involvement. 

However, while Solana experienced a surge in new addresses, its on-chain activity declined during the same period. 

Data from The Block, a leading blockchain analysis tool, reveal that on-chain activity on the Solana network declined in May, counteracting the influx of new participants.

On-chain activity refers to transactions, smart contract interactions and other operations that occur on the blockchain. 

The decrease in on-chain activity raises questions about the factors affecting Solana’s overall blockchain engagement and usage and why the growth in activity has not had a positive impact on its price.

Meanwhile, the price of the asset has also reflected its on-chain activity as SOL has been trending downward over the past week, down nearly 10%.

https://en.cryptonomist.ch/2023/05/24/telegram-new-crypto-accelerator/

Important news in the Telegram household: the TON Foundation recently revealed its new accelerator program for emerging crypto projects, allocating up to $25 million.

Below are all the details. 

Telegram: TON Foundation and its crypto-friendly projects

As anticipated, the TON Foundation, the entity that manages The Open Network‘s (TON) blockchain, has unveiled a new accelerator program for emerging crypto projects, allocating up to $25 million for projects supported this year.

Specifically, the foundation said in a statement the following: 

“The funding, provided by the Toncoin Fund, a $250 million ecosystem fund dedicated to supporting TON-based founders, will channel investment into key projects across a variety of fields, with a focus on decentralized finance (DeFi ).”

As we know, Toncoin is the native currency of the blockchain. According to the plan, each investment will cover between $50,000 and $250,000 per project. In addition, financial support for selected projects will accompany partnership and mentoring by accelerator partners. 

These include: Gotbit, a hedge fund and market-making business and a provider of trading and risk management solutions; Web3port, a developer of tools that connect startups and Web 3.0 contributors; Tonstarter, the leading fundraising platform on the TON blockchain. 

Furthermore, there’s TEB, an incubator for Web3 developers based in South Korea; and Cypher Capital, a multi-strategy cryptocurrency investment firm based in the United Arab Emirates.

Statements regarding the new TON Accelerator program

Regarding the news, Justin Hyun, head of incubation and growth at the TON Foundation, said the following: 

“We are pleased to unveil the TON Accelerator program as our ecosystem continues to evolve and attract new talent. This is the start of many different incubators that will be supported in the future. The funding is part of our local hub rollout strategy, and our ecosystem will work to attract new developers and successful repeat founders, based in a variety of key global locations.”

In addition, the foundation said that applications are currently open: 

“Projects must be based on TON (i.e. support TVM and TON smart-contract language). Additionally, projects should be MVP-ready while requiring support in marketing, business, and technology (prototype or prototyping teams requiring more technical support should apply for earlier stage grants).”

On the other hand, Bill Qian, the president of Cypher Capital, said: 

“What the TON Accelerator program is doing is taking the incubator principle made famous within the Web2 ecosystem, refining and evolving it using the best Web3 protocols and ways of working. We are delighted to play our part in this next generation programme. This is a program that is unique in the Web3 universe today.”

As we know, TON was initially created by the team behind Telegram with which it remains affiliated, and has been run as an open source community project since 2020.

Bemo and DWF launch first liquid staking protocol on the TON blockchain

Bemo, in partnership with DWF Labs, has launched the first liquid staking protocol on the TON blockchain. 

Bemo’s partnership with DWF Labs, one of the largest digital asset investment companies and the first liquidity provider to target TON via the Bemo application, confirms the role of liquid staking services as a major trend in DeFi.

Moreover, the launch of Bemo with the support of DWF Labs illustrates both the commitment to the development of the TON ecosystem and the enormous investment potential of The Open Network. 

As we know, liquid staking differs from traditional staking services by allowing stakers to earn more from their staked tokens.

The staking protocol allows TON holders to stake their tokens in exchange for stTON tokens, which represent their share in the staking. 

Stakers can then increase the return on their stTON tokens by participating in the provision of liquidity on decentralized exchanges or by lending them through dedicated applications. 

In this way, they not only earn from staking, but also contribute to the DeFi ecosystem and earn additional returns.

Bemo’s liquid staking allows TON token holders to earn rewards while maintaining full access to their funds. 

The stTON tokens received in exchange for the staked TON allow users to earn staking returns while maintaining control over resources, with the ability to increase returns with DeFi applications.

Bemo plans to attract institutional investors and private clients to its platform, with the goal of reaching $100 million in TVL by the end of the year.

https://en.cryptonomist.ch/2023/05/24/bitcoin-crypto-hong-kong-reopens-trading/

It’s official: Hong Kong confirms it will give the green light to retail crypto trading starting 1 June, Bitcoin reacts positively to the news.

Below are all the details. 

Hong Kong says yes to crypto trading, Bitcoin rises 1.7%

As anticipated, crypto prices rose Tuesday after Hong Kong’s securities regulator announced that it will allow retail trading of certain cryptocurrencies starting 1 June.

As a result, Bitcoin rose 1.7% to $27,293.64, according to Coin Metrics. The largest cryptocurrency traded in a small range throughout May, struggling to exceed $30,000 but remaining above $25,000. 

Late Monday evening, the Securities and Futures Commission in Hong Kong said it will allow retail investors to trade certain cryptocurrencies starting next month on registered trading platforms. 

The move was widely expected, with the announcement marking the end of a request for public comment filed in February on proposed regulatory requirements for retail cryptocurrency trading.

It is worth noting that the new guidelines are part of a broader effort by Hong Kong to become a global crypto hub. 

However, this ambition stands in stark contrast to China, which banned cryptocurrency trading in 2021, as well as the United States, where the regulatory stance toward cryptocurrencies has become hostile since the FTX collapse.

Considerations regarding Bitcoin’s performance

The Securities and Futures Commission in Hong Kong has already licensed two digital asset platforms, OSL and Hash Blockchain, and it is likely that some are already actively trading offshore, Acheson said.

In addition, Oppenheimer analyst Owen Lau called Hong Kong “quite aggressive” in its attempt to want to become a crypto hub: 

“It will continue to capture the attention of the community and attract more companies to open offices in Hong Kong. It is difficult to gauge the exact impact, but it has a long-term effect on capital flow and talent movement.”

Although the price movement is small, the news comes at a time when the market lacks major catalysts and trading has reached a pause. 

In addition, as investors monitor debt ceiling negotiations and rate hike expectations rise, Bitcoin has started acting like a risk asset again, just as it was starting to trade more in tandem with gold.

We also see that Bitcoin and Ether are on track for the worst month of 2023, down 7.6% and 3.1%, respectively. Bitcoin is down 4.5% for the quarter, after ending the first quarter up 71%. Ether is up 1%, after registering a 52% gain in the first quarter.

Historically low levels of crypto assets: why? 

In recent times, major digital assets have recorded total liquidation of about $55 million, with Bitcoin and Ethereum leading the pack at $15.54 million and $14.77 million, respectively. 

As a result, the rest of the altcoin market reported a liquidation of about $25 million, showing a significant decline in cryptocurrency traders. 

At the same time, the decline in crypto trading volume aligns with the drop in Bitcoin’s price below the crucial $27.5K support level. 

Bullish Bitcoin traders are now trying to maintain stability above the weekly 200 MA, drawing attention to the upcoming FOMC meeting minutes scheduled for Wednesday.

In addition, a recent report by on-chain platform Santiment reveals a substantial decrease in cryptocurrency trading volumes since Bitcoin’s rebound in early March. 

Furthermore, it is interesting to note that the highly anticipated Ethereum Shanghai Upgrade on 12 April failed to trigger significant trading volume in the cryptocurrency ecosystem due to concerns over potential regulatory crackdowns in the United States.

In fact, Santiment’s report points out that the largest crypto assets are currently experiencing historically low levels of weekly trading volume. In particular, altcoin volume has declined significantly. 

Looking ahead, as Bitcoin’s halving approaches within a year, experts anticipate that the cryptocurrency market will continue to consolidate and trade in sync with the overall market outlook. 

As a result, cryptocurrency analysts expect a potential shakeout before a rebound as fears of an impending recession loom in the second half of 2023.

https://en.cryptonomist.ch/2023/05/23/metaverse-ovr-scores-110-increase/

The likely comeback of metaverse-linked tokens, particularly OVER, raises more than one curiosity among experts and investors.

In fact, one wonders why it is precisely at this time that these particular types of coins are potentially in the limelight. 

Let’s try to understand why. 

The price of the OVER metaverse token reaches the highest level since November 2022 

As anticipated, the price of the OVER token (OVR) rose to $0.61 on Monday, jumping more than 40% in the past 24 hours when it reached its highest level since November 2022.

The price of OVR rose more than 110% last week and is experiencing an increase in network activity with over $3.5 million of OVR traded in the last 24 hours, representing a 90% increase in market activity.

In addition, we see that the price of OVR is registering major gains as the broader momentum of the cryptocurrency market stalls due to uncertainty over the US debt ceiling talks. 

In any case, one factor that may have helped the OVER token in its bullish momentum could be related to news about Apple, which is reportedly on the verge of launching its long-awaited VR/AR visor.

The Apple VR/AR headset is designed as a mixed reality viewer, and although the iPhone maker has not confirmed its development status or release date, market expectations have seen huge speculation about when it will arrive.

Indeed, not only are augmented reality enthusiasts hoping for an official glimpse of the device during the event on 5 June, but they are also excited about what this means in terms of competition with the likes of Meta Quest Pro, PSVR 2 and other similar VR visors.

Over the Reality: what it is and price predictions 

Over the Reality (OVER) is an AR metaverse platform designed to unite physical and virtual worlds. 

The OVER metaverse is built on the Ethereum and Polygon blockchains and OVR is its utility token.

OVR is used to power all transactions on the OVER platform, including the purchase and sale of digital assets, access to exclusive content, and participation in metaverse events.

OVR is also used to reward users for their contributions to the OVER ecosystem, such as content creation, event participation, and transaction verification.

The OVER ecosystem also enables the creation of decentralized applications (dApps), which can be used to enhance a variety of features on the OVER platform, including games, social media, and commerce.

As reported earlier, the latest increase in the price of OVR coincides with speculation about the VR/AR mixed reality visor. 

The price of OVR is currently testing resistance near the levels seen in October 2021, before bullish buyers reached an all-time high of $3.33 in early December of that year.

Although buyers have taken control in recent days, it is possible that the highlighted area is a critical obstacle. 

The outlook for OVR could see the token rise to a new multi-month high as hype around the metaverse increases.

How are other tokens related to the metaverse performing? Focus on MANA, AXS and SAND

Moving past OVER, let’s take a look at the other tokens in the Metaverse, albeit not all of them, to get an idea of how this type of market is generally performing. 

For example, we see that Decentaland (MANA) is currently trading near $0.48 with a small drop in the intraday session. 

The upward price trend of Decentraland may see a halt near the $0.558 value. Meanwhile, the downward trend of MANA may observe a rebound from $0.44.

In addition, if the asset price exceeds the 50 or 100 DMA, a strong upward trend can be seen in the future.

Thus, Axie Infinity (AXS) also joined other altcoins in the decline reaching its lowest price last week after a four-month decline. 

Following the existing bearish scenario that began in January, AXS recently established new support at $6.5 after falling slightly below its March low. 

The price fluctuated above that support for days before recovering with a 30% spike to test a crucial resistance line at $8.5. 

Interestingly, this resistance line suppressed the sudden buying pressure with rejection and subsequently broke the pressure.

However, the sudden spike looks more like a retest and not a bullish signal.

Even if bullish people regroup in the future, they will have to break through the crucial resistance line before positive action can be confirmed.

The price of The Sandbox (SAND), on the other hand, after a bullish cup-and-handle pattern, rose more than 95%. Despite gaining significant support from the bulls, the price failed to break its crucial resistance near the 200 EMA. 

The current price of SAND is about $0.5211 with a 24-hour trading volume change of 35%.

https://en.cryptonomist.ch/2023/05/23/price-analysis-bitcoin-cardano-litecoin/

What are the latest news stories that are affecting the price of Bitcoin (BTC), Cardano (ADA) and Litecoin (LTC) crypto assets? 

Below are all the details and a look at the latest news. 

Bitcoin crypto price stable at $27K: what will be the next value?  

As we know, global financial markets are worried about the potential fallout from a US debt default. 

Meanwhile, Bitcoin, the main cryptocurrency, remains stable, holding value around $27K, creating ambiguity about its next steps amid economic turmoil. 

While talks remain deadlocked on raising the US government’s $31.4 trillion debt ceiling, sparking jitters in financial markets, some analysts are distancing themselves from popular opinion. 

In particular, they warn that a potential deal could cause a downturn in the cryptocurrency market.

Glassnode, an on-chain analytics firm, recently reports a significant pause in cryptocurrency market activity. 

Despite expected market fluctuations, Bitcoin, the largest cryptocurrency by market capitalization, has maintained a remarkably steady price range for several months.

This remarkable stability persists despite ongoing concerns about the soundness of US regional banks and the national debt ceiling.

When the debt ceiling is eventually raised, the Treasury is expected to replenish its cash reserves by issuing more government bonds. This could potentially drain liquidity from the system and apply upward pressure on bond yields. 

Because increased issuance often leads to lower prices and higher yields, Bitcoin (BTC), which typically moves against bond yields, could suffer.

So while a deal could alleviate significant economic uncertainty, assets like Bitcoin, which lack links to the tangible economy and rely heavily on fiat liquidity, could actually face challenges.

Focus on the price of Cardano (ADA): how it compares to Bitcoin and Litecoin 

Based on the latest data, regarding the price of Cardano, we see that as the price consolidates below key resistance, ADA could attempt a breakout.

Specifically, we identify key support levels at $0.36 and $0.34. In contrast, key resistance levels are identified at $0.38 and $0.40. 

Hence, the price of ADA has formed a double low with good support at 36 cents. As long as this key level holds, bullish traders have a good chance of taking the ADA price to resistance at 38 cents. 

Instead, a breakout above would confirm the end of this correction that began in April. Instead, we see trading volume continuing to be low and momentum still to return for the bulls.

In addition, the daily RSI is registering higher lows, which gives hope for an upcoming reversal. As for the daily MACD, it recorded a bullish cross today, and if buyers return, it could signal the beginning of a bullish trend.

In conclusion, Cardano is at a critical juncture that will be decisive for the rest of the month. If buyers manage to return and break key resistance at 38 cents, then ADA will turn bullish and could eventually visit 40 cents.

The crucial $90 level for Litecoin’s price value 

Despite the prevailing selling pressure in the cryptocurrency market, Litecoin has emerged as an outstanding performer. 

Although the past 24 hours have not witnessed any significant movement in LTC’s value, the weekly chart reveals an appreciation of nearly 4%.

A significant breakthrough occurred when Litecoin broke through the crucial $90 price level, signaling a positive shift in its price. 

Technical analysis suggests that bulls dominate the price action, with demand and accumulation indicators showing positive signals. 

Most altcoins, including Litecoin, have shown similar price patterns influenced by Bitcoin’s fluctuations. 

Therefore, whether the price of LTC remains above the $90 threshold will depend on the overall strength of the broader market. 

Should Bitcoin recover the $27,000 area, it could pave the way for Litecoin to overcome its significant environmental resistance in subsequent trading sessions.

Although LTC buyers currently hold a favorable position, it is important to note that a slight push from the bears could potentially take the price below $90, provoking bearish activity. 

However, the increase in Litecoin’s market capitalization in the recent session suggests that buyers are currently in control.

At the moment, Litecoin (LTC) is valued at $91.02. The altcoin’s success above the $90 mark has armed the bulls, who are now pushing prices even higher.

However, a formidable barrier lies at $92.8. Breaching this resistance level could potentially push LTC toward the $97 threshold.

Conversely, falling from the current price level would push the altcoin below $90. In this case, support could lie at around $86. LTC’s trading volume from the recent session was positive (green), indicating growing demand for the coin.

https://en.cryptonomist.ch/2023/05/22/crypto-news-gemini-threatens-genesis/

The latest crypto news raises concerns about DCG entity Genesis, which is threatened to be sued by Gemini for its $630 million non-payment. 

In addition, Gemini said it is working with Genesis, DCG and creditors to provide forbearance to DCG to avoid a default. 

Below are all the details. 

Gemini crypto exchange attacks Genesis: what’s going on?

As anticipated, Digital Currency Group (DCG) missed a $630 million payment due to Gemini last week. 

At that point, Gemini CEO Cameron Winklevoss threatened to sue DCG CEO Barry Silbert and DCG for repayment of a $900 million loan. 

This comes after Genesis, a DCG entity, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy amid allegations of commingled funds and ongoing litigation over loan repayments. 

On the other hand, the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has accused both companies of selling unregistered securities through their Earn program.

Hence, Gemini and DCG are in discussions, and if no agreement is reached, Gemini and other parties are proposing a modified plan of reorganization with Genesis that does not require DCG’s approval, Gemini said in an update on its website: 

“Consideration will be based in part on whether the parties believe DCG will engage in good faith negotiations about a consensual settlement.” 

Meanwhile, Gemini is preparing to file a complaint demanding the return of more than $1.1 billion in digital assets from Genesis for its more than 200,000 Earn users.

Late last week, Genesis attorneys filed a request with the Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of New York for an extension of their allotted time to file a Chapter 11 plan and solicit acceptances.

If the court approves it, they will have until 27 August to submit a plan and until 26 October for it to be accepted. According to a January court statement, Genesis owes more than $3.5 billion to its 50 major creditors including Gemini, Cumberland, Mirana, MoonAlpha Finance and VanEck’s New Finance Income Fund.

Winklevoss accuses DCG CEO Barry Silbert of “bad faith stalling tactics” 

Recently, the co-founder of crypto exchange Gemini accused Digital Currency Group CEO Barry Silbert of “stalling tactics in bad faith” as their respective companies clash over a business disagreement resulting from the multibillion-dollar implosion of FTX late last year.

Specifically, Cameron Winklevoss criticized Silbert in an open letter posted on Twitter claiming that cryptocurrency broker Genesis Global Capital and its parent company, DCG, owe Gemini’s clients $900 million. 

The letter alleges that Gemini has waited unnecessarily for six weeks for news on a repayment agreement. Silbert responded, tweeting that DCG handed Genesis and Gemini advisers a proposal on 29 December 2022, and had no response.

Winklevoss also accused DCG’s CEO of using $1.675 billion in money for purposes that helped other DCG initiatives instead of repaying creditors: 

“You took this money to fuel greedy stock buybacks, illiquid venture investments, and grayscale kamikaze [net asset value] deals that inflated your Trust’s fee generation [assets under management], all at the expense of creditors and all for your personal gain.”

Silbert responded, tweeting that DCG “did not borrow $1.675 billion from Genesis.” He also stated that DCG has never missed an interest payment to Genesis and is current on all outstanding loans.

Gemini, Genesis and the problems following the FTX collapse

DCG has a $1.1 billion promissory note related to Genesis’ liabilities related to Three Arrows Capital‘s default. In November, Silbert wrote in a note to shareholders that DCG owed Genesis Global about $575 million due in May.

Gemini Trust Co. owned by Winklevoss and his twin brother Tyler, suspended repayments on an interest-generating product called Earn in mid-November, a week after rival cryptocurrency exchange FTX filed for bankruptcy. 

The product offered investors the opportunity to earn up to 8% interest on their cryptocurrencies by lending those digital tokens to Genesis. Gemini’s redemption pause came on the heels of Genesis’ announcement that its derivatives business had about $175 million locked up on the now insolvent FTX platform. 

Genesis stopped withdrawals and suspended new loan origination when FTX filed for bankruptcy. Since then, Genesis’ creditors have been working with restructuring lawyers to prevent insolvency.

Winklevoss’s letter comes as his company faces serious financial problems, including a lawsuit against the company’s Earn product for alleged fraud and securities law violations and a slew of angry Earn customers who have been unable to access their accounts.

https://en.cryptonomist.ch/2023/05/22/bitcoin-news-biden-crypto-opposes/

Latest Bitcoin and cryptocurrency news: Democratic US presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. positively supports Bitcoin, while US President Joe Biden opposes a deal that would allegedly benefit cryptocurrency traders.

Below are all the details. 

Important news for Bitcoin: Robert F. Kennedy Jr is on its side 

Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the Democratic candidate for president of the United States, has strongly supported Bitcoin by stating at the 2023 Bitcoin Conference that he will ensure that the right to hold and use Bitcoin is inviolable. 

This position gives a chance to potential future policies that encourage and protect the use and ownership of digital currencies.

In addition, Kennedy expressed immense admiration for the level of the speech at the conference, noting: 

“We just heard one of the most amazing talks I’ve ever heard about Bitcoin at an event in my entire life, and I’ve been doing it for many years.”

His statement underscores the maturation of the cryptocurrency ecosystem and its growing significance in global financial and political conversations.

Moreover, his comments, along with the idea that Bitcoin could potentially challenge the dominance of the US dollar in the global economy, underscore the transformative potential of digital currencies. 

Indeed, with greater acceptance of Bitcoin‘s decentralized nature and direct transaction capabilities, it seems increasingly possible for Bitcoin to disrupt the traditional monetary system.

US Senator Cynthia Lummis, who was also at the conference, echoed Kennedy’s sentiments about Bitcoin’s role in strengthening financial sovereignty, noting the following: 

“Bitcoin empowers individuals their own sovereignty and to implement, use and secure their values as Americans.”

With such high-profile endorsements, the transformative potential of cryptocurrencies is being recognized at the highest levels of US politics. 

This recognition could spur the creation of a more favorable regulatory environment for digital currencies.

As a Democratic presidential candidate and influential political figure, Kennedy’s supportive stance toward Bitcoin is an affirmation that digital currencies have permeated the highest levels of political discourse.

In conclusion, the next chapter in this evolving narrative promises significant implications for the world of finance and regulation.

Biden: “I don’t accept a deal for rich tax evaders and crypto traders”

On the other hand, US President Joe Biden has expressed opposition to a debt ceiling deal with Republican leaders that would allegedly benefit cryptocurrency traders. 

Attending the G7 summit in Hiroshima, Japan, on 21 May, Biden called the terms proposed by Republicans “unacceptable” during a press conference.

“I will not agree to a deal that protects wealthy tax dodgers and cryptocurrency traders by putting food assistance at risk for nearly a hundred – excuse me – nearly 1 million Americans.”

The alleged protections for cryptocurrency traders relate to the collection of tax losses. According to the Washington Post, there is an ongoing discussion between the White House and Republican leaders about blocking the mechanism for cryptocurrency transactions.

In fact, collecting cryptocurrency tax losses is a strategy that investors use to reduce their overall tax liabilities. Consequently, it involves selling a cryptocurrency at a loss to offset capital gains from cryptocurrency profit. 

To claim a loss, assets must be sold and the proceeds used to purchase a similar asset within 30 days before or after the sale. The mechanism is also available for stocks and other assets.

The US risks default as early as June 

In addition to ending the collection of tax losses for cryptocurrencies, the White House has thrown Republicans a similar proposal that would prevent investors from deferring taxes on real estate swaps. 

Both changes would add about $40 billion in tax revenue for the US government. Republicans reject the proposals, a source told the Post. 

House Speaker Kevin McCarthy says the rising US debt is a “spending problem, not a revenue problem,” citing the Biden administration’s overspending during the pandemic. 

Meanwhile, the White House blames the debt issue on previous administrations’ tax cuts, arguing that revenues were significantly affected by the tax cuts.

Republicans want to close the deficit with $4.8 trillion in spending cuts, which would directly affect federal agency budgets. If Congress fails to raise the debt ceiling, the US could go into default as early as 1 June. 

Biden will reportedly speak with McCarthy on the phone during his flight from Hiroshima to Washington, DC. In place since 1917, the debt ceiling is the limit Congress has set on how much money the federal government can borrow to pay its bills.

https://en.cryptonomist.ch/2023/05/22/metaverse-price-nems-skyrockets/

It’s official: The Nemesis metaverse has finally launched its NEMS token, whose price after 24 hours went from $0.20 to $2.27, marking a +2170% according to data provided by Btcex.com.

The news is reported by The Nemesis’ official Twitter account: 

What is the NEMS token launched by The Nemesis metaverse? 

The Nemesis Metaverse in collaboration with Coinbar introduced on 8 May its new ERC-20 payment token: NEMS. The token aims to introduce new possibilities for NFT users and holders. 

In fact, they will be able to purchase NEMS on renowned exchanges where it is listed and use it to buy items on the upcoming Marketplace, or even exchange the in-game currency COINS for NEMS and other currencies.

In other words, the launch of the NEMS token marks another significant milestone, along with the upcoming public sale of their third collection of NFTs: lands, toward the realization of a full-fledged platform for playing and earning.

In fact, among the various purposes of The Nemesis Metaverse is the realization of the Play and Earn concept, on which the platform is based, allowing users to earn money by playing. 

All phases of the NEMS token launch price

With the launch of the new NEMS token, The Nemesis Metaverse wanted to reward its community by offering an exclusive pre-launch opportunity at an extraordinary price of only $0.15 per NEMS token, exclusively on the Coinbar exchange. 

In this way, only holders of utility NFTs of The Nemesis could purchase it. It is worth noting that the operation was very successful, selling out in less than 24 hours.

In any case, NEMS’ journey continued with its launch on Cryptosmart on 10 May, available to all users at the same price, but with a minimum package of $200 and an extra NEMS reward for purchase. 

Then, on 20 May, the NEMS token was made public with a TGE (Token Generation Event) on the well-known exchanges BTCEX and UNISWAP. In addition, in the following weeks, it will be available on other major exchanges as outlined in The Nemesis Metaverse roadmap, such as BingX and BitMart. 

As can be seen, providing users with a myriad of choices and opportunities seems to be essential for The Nemesis. In fact, the following can be read on the official website: 

“We understand the importance of providing different earning possibilities and the freedom to trade NEMS according to individual preferences. As the 1st Metaverse Platform ranked in the top 20 Web3 Virtual Worlds by Metaversed, The Nemesis aims to deliver an unmatched platform experience, offering a comprehensive Play to Earn system.”

What can be done with the new Metaverse token? 

As is well known, the metaverse, while not without its critics and perplexities, does indeed offer endless possibilities. 

As such, with the new NEMS token users will have the opportunity to purchase NFT Lands (now available at a 50% discount if you have a Companion) and NFT Collections. 

These are digital pieces of real estate in The Nemesis Metaverse where users can build their own unique and personal worlds. 

However, it doesn’t end there, because with the upcoming Marketplace, you will also have the ability to trade COINS for NEMS and even purchase resources to customize your Metaverse or exclusive skins for your avatars. 

In essence, whatever the user’s purpose is, whether it is to make money or invest in their business or project within one or more territories, NEMS will make sure to be an indispensable resource. 

Finally, their diversity and uniqueness from the many tokens that orbit the crypto world is highlighted on The Nemesis website: 

“What sets us apart from other platforms is that The Nemesis is not simply a crypto platform; we are a metaverse platform built on a circular ecosystem. Our NFTs contain game and platform utilities, and over time, as we introduce AI-powered enhancements, their value will continue to grow as our brand itself grows.”

https://en.cryptonomist.ch/2023/05/20/mastercard-cryptos-eurs-stablecoin/

As we know, the Mastercard Wirex crypto card is not new to the blockchain landscape, while the addition of the EURS stablecoin to the Wirex app is more recent. Below we look at some of its benefits and other new features. 

Features of the Mastercard crypto card and EURS stablecoin 

Payments giant Mastercard is not new to blockchain technology, in fact it has been offering crypto cards that allow digital currencies to be used for purchases for some time. 

Specifically, today we’re looking at the Mastercard Wirex card, which allows you to earn euros on a 1:1 basis through a bank account. In particular, it has recently been made possible to load the Wirex card with the recently added EURS stablecoin via Mastercard in the app. 

The advantages of the full version of the app and the Wirex card are several. First of all, we see the multi-currency contactless Mastercard, which allows spending in both fiat and cryptocurrencies, automatically converting them into local currency at OTC/interbank rates. 

Then there is the ability to pay in-store, online or withdraw cash at ATMs and also CryptobackTM (instant cashback paid in cryptocurrencies) from 0.5% to 8% (depending on account level) on ALL card transactions except ATM withdrawals. 

There is also the ability to receive, send, hold and exchange any of over 130 traditional and digital currencies via bank transfer (UK Faster Payments for GBP and SEPA for EUR) or blockchain (with the aim of covering all Firebricks-supported chains/tokens in the coming months). 

Another key feature is zero fees on all fiat exchange and stablecoin transactions, including card spend. There is also Wirex Credit, which offers the possibility to borrow USD (stablecoin) against crypto assets. 

The latter in particular will soon be available with a direct link to the card, effectively making it a crypto credit card. Finally, there are the high-yield X accounts, which pay up to 16% APY on both crypto and fiat deposits. 

EURS: Europe’s leading stablecoin added to Wirex 

As expected, EUROS is the world’s most popular European stablecoin, being a reliable digital asset backed 1:1 by the euro and originating from the heart of EU fintech, Malta. 

In particular, it is described as the only ‘pure’ euro stablecoin, with no legal, collateral or banking risk outside the EU, maximum transparency and a four-year track record of success verified by BDO. 

In addition, it helps to manage decentralised payments for various instances by using an advanced multi-blockchain infrastructure that takes the stress out of the equation. 

As such, EURS is specifically designed to bridge the gap between traditional and digital economies by combining the benefits of blockchain technology with the stability of the euro.

Furthermore, EUROS is the first stablecoin to introduce delegated payments on the Ethereum blockchain. This means that users no longer have to worry about paying high gas fees to make transactions. 

Instead, they can pay transaction fees using EURS or any other digital currency supported by the STASIS wallet. 

For all these reasons and the countless benefits mentioned above, Wirex, one of the most popular digital payment platforms, recently expanded its stablecoin selection in the app to include EURS.

Partnership between Wirex and Transfero for crypto expansion in Brazil 

Wirex recently announced a strategic partnership with Brazil’s leading blockchain solutions company, Transfero. 

The integration with the latter is no coincidence, as through Transfero, Brazilian customers can now use PIX to instantly reload and withdraw from their Wirex account or bank, free of charge. 

Remember that PIX is an extremely popular instant payment method in Brazil. Wirex’s goal is to continue to expand the facilitation of the crypto universe. 

The fact that it chose Brazil is symbolic for Wirex, as the adoption of cryptocurrencies is growing astronomically across Latin America, and in December 2022, Brazil legalised cryptocurrency payments. 

Not only that, but by the end of the year, Wirex aims to offer its cryptocurrency-enabled debit card in Brazil, allowing customers to spend in multiple currencies at over 80 million locations worldwide while earning crypto rewards.

https://en.cryptonomist.ch/2023/05/19/record-brc-20-memecoin-trend/

It’s an all-time record for BRC-20 Memecoins, which have become a dominant force in Bitcoin transactions, accounting for a significant 47% share since the beginning of May. 

Notably, this surge peaked on the 7th of May, when BRC-20 tokens surpassed non-BRC-20 ordinal transactions, claiming a 65% market share. 

Here are all the details. 

BRC-20 memecoins besiege bitcoin’s blockchain

According to CryptoQuant analyst Axel Adler Jr, the bitcoin (BTC) network is now “under siege” due to rising fees and transaction backlogs caused by a popular new token standard, the BRC-20 tokens. 

Specifically, Axel Adler Jr explained that the BRC-20 Memecoin mint on the BTC blockchain is causing a surge in demand for block space, adding: 

“Unlike conventional token standards, such as Ethereum’s ERC-20, BRC-20 does not use smart contracts and only works with wallets that support the Bitcoin blockchain.”

According to CryptoQuant, the average fee per transaction has also risen sharply, exceeding $16 and peaking at $29 on 9 May. Specifically, tweets published by CryptoQuant state the following: 

“Bitcoin under siege by ‘junk’ BRC-20 coins: record fees and thousands of unconfirmed transactions!” 

Furthermore, Bitinfocharts data also reported an increase in average transaction fees, peaking at $31 on 8 May, compared to around $19 the day before.

Not only that, but on 8 May, for the first time since 2017, the total fees per block temporarily exceeded the block subsidy reward of 6.25 BTC. 

Then, on 9 May, Bitinfochart data recorded a new all-time high for the seven-day moving average of the number of bitcoin transactions, reaching a high of 534,000.

However, the number could be higher as Bitinfocharts recorded two peaks of over 600,000 daily transactions this month using raw parameters. In fact, on 9 May, it recorded 598,000 transactions on the BTC blockchain.

Comments on Bitcoin Ordinals 

Mati GreenSpan also commented on the situation on Twitter, stating the following 

“Love them or hate them, ordinals are definitely disrupting the situation. Yesterday the number of transactions on the bitcoin blockchain hit a new all time high of 534,000”. 

Blockchain.com also confirmed the data, reporting that the average number of transactions per block reached an all-time high of 3,778 transactions.

Graph of the average number of transactions per block on bitcoin

According to Mempool Space, there are currently around 400,000 transactions on the network awaiting confirmation, so the backlog is not drying up, keeping transaction prices high.

Then we see that on 9 May the total market capitalisation of BRC-20 tokens exceeded $1 billion, according to the data. 

The problem has become so serious that the Bitcoin core developers are considering taking action against BRC-20 tokens and Ordinals, which we read are considered network spam: 

After all, we do know that the number of Ordinals inscriptions almost doubled from 2.5 million to 4.78 million in just over a week. It’s all good news for the miners, though, as profitability, or the price of hash, has risen by 66 per cent since the beginning of the month.

BRC-20 tokens exceed $1 billion market cap

As anticipated, on 9 May, the total market capitalisation of BRC-20 tokens exceeded $1 billion, with a total trading volume of $207.7 million in 24 hours. 

The most important tokens that have been implemented are, among others, ORDI, NALS, VMPX, PEPE and MEME, with a price variation between +11% and -55% in the last day.

As we know, the BRC-20 token standard was developed by Twitter user Domo on 8 March. 

At present, there are over 14,000 BRC-20 tokens distributed on Bitcoin compared to about 628,000 tokens on Ethereum.

In this regard, it was Domo himself who stated that the standard is useless and that users should not waste money en masse to coin this experiment:

In any case, BitKeep recently announced that it will soon support the Ordinals protocol and the BRC-20 protocol on its mobile and plug-in extension platforms. 

A new Bitcoin NFT section will also be included in the BitKeep NFT marketplace, enabling the display, minting, transfer and trading of NFT BTC based on the Ordinals protocol. 

In all, despite being proud of its prospects, Trust Wallet has decided not to support Bitcoin Ordinals. Meanwhile, MetaMask added a new feature in February that allows users to store Ordinals.

https://en.cryptonomist.ch/2023/05/19/coinbase-announces-major-new-features/

Coinbase, one of the world’s leading crypto exchanges, recently announced two major new features: the launch of its Coinbase One subscription service in three more countries, and Coinbase Cloud, which connects to Chainlink’s oracle network to improve the reliability of smart contracts. 

Here are all the details.

Coinbase One: the best solution for traders and Web3 users 

As expected, Coinbase recently announced the launch of its subscription offering, Coinbase One, in the UK, Germany and Ireland. 

Now available in 35 countries, with a large concentration in Europe, Coinbase One offers the best of Coinbase to new and advanced traders and Web3 users.

Despite the bearish market, Coinbase One has continued to experience steady organic growth. With the launch of three new European markets, Coinbase One is also adding new features to what customers can get from the subscription service. 

These include: enhanced wagering rewards, zero trading fees and 24/7 global customer support. There are also exclusive partner offers for members including Messari Pro, Blockworks, Lemonade, CoinTracker and Alto IRA. 

There is also a pre-filled 8949 tax form that automatically organises crypto transactions and can be filed directly through online tax filing services or accountants.

Finally, members who sign up for Coinbase One before 25 May can apply for a commemorative “Founding Member” NFT by downloading the latest version of the Coinbase app and clicking on the ‘Apply for your NFT’ icon to follow Coinbase’s step-by-step minting process.

Chainlink’s Oracle network adds Coinbase Cloud as node operator

In other significant news, Coinbase Cloud will use its global infrastructure and expertise in blockchain data management to enhance the security and reliability of Chainlink’s Oracle blockchain network.

In other words, the US-based crypto exchange’s cloud service will act as a new node operator on Chainlink’s network in a partnership designed to enhance the decentralisation of the Web3 ecosystem. 

Coinbase Cloud’s infrastructure already powers several leading blockchains, including Ethereum, Solana, Algorand and Aptos. 

Chainlink node operators are an integral part of the network and are responsible for connecting smart contracts on different blockchains to data and systems.

Chainlink thus bridges Web2 and Web3 by extracting, formatting and transmitting data to smart contracts. 

In this context, Kai Zhao, Product Manager of the Coinbase Cloud Group, stressed the importance of node operators in the cryptocurrency ecosystem, ensuring the security and reliability of smart contracts: 

“By building decentralized oracles, we are helping to create a more decentralized and trusted future for blockchain technology. We believe on-chain is the next online thing and look forward to working with Chainlink to drive that future forward.”

On the other hand, William Reilly, global head of centralised finance, sales and strategy at Chainlink Labs, added that the latest node operator will add expertise and robust infrastructure to the Oracle network, benefiting a wide range of Web3 products, services and applications:

“Their involvement will undoubtedly contribute to the advancement of decentralized applications, further propelling the blockchain industry to new heights.”

Bitcoin Lightning Network, SEC and other controversies 

The news doesn’t stop there, however, as we see that Coinbase has recently confirmed that it will be integrating the Bitcoin Lightning Network into its platform, ensuring that Bitcoin transactions will expand and move at a faster pace.

As we know, the idea behind the Lightning Network is that it helps move various smaller Bitcoin transactions off-chain, ensuring that the network has less ‘baggage’ to deal with. 

By removing some of these smaller transactions from the BTC mainframe, bitcoin can move faster when transferred between wallets, while ensuring that transactions are less expensive. 

The Lightning Network news was announced on Twitter by Brian Armstrong, CEO of Coinbase, who said: 

 We note that this news comes at an interesting time as Coinbase is facing several issues at the moment. In fact, the trading platform recently announced that it had received a Wells Warning from the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). 

A Wells Warning does not accuse a company of any crime. It is, however, a warning to the company receiving the notice that it is likely to be charged in the future. This gives the company time to prepare and get a good legal team to fight on its behalf.

In any case, there is no guarantee as to whether Coinbase has really done anything wrong or whether this is just another attempt by the SEC to put a spoke in the wheels of the crypto world, and all that remains is to wait and see what happens.

https://en.cryptonomist.ch/2023/05/18/crypto-new-record-high-dogecoin-chain/

Crypto news: Daily transactions on the Dogecoin network have reached a record high, rising to over 719,000. 

The increase is credited to users generating meme tokens using frameworks inspired by Ordinals. 

Below are all the details. 

Dogecoin crypto surpasses Bitcoin in daily transactions

As anticipated, the Dogecoin network recently saw a sharp increase in daily transactions, reaching a new high of over 719,000 on Tuesday. 

This represents a record in Dogecoin’s daily transaction volume, surpassing even that of the Bitcoin network, according to data from BitInfoCharts. 

The increase is largely attributed to users creating meme tokens using frameworks influenced by the Ordinals protocol on Bitcoin, aka “Doginals.” 

Dogecoin-based meme tokens are based on what is called the DRC-20 token standard, which emulates the functionality of the BRC-20 token standard on Bitcoin used to mint fungible tokens. 

This system allows users to embed data in shibes, the smallest unit of Dogecoin, thus enabling the tracking of fungible and non-fungible tokens within the network. 

The system is open to anyone, and there is an apparent rush among Dogecoin users and developers to mint such tokens. In fact, the development triggered a significant increase in user activity that began last week, as noted by members of the Dogecoin community on Twitter: 

Uncertainty about meme tokens continues to prevail, why? 

Despite this, the short-term future of meme tokens remains clouded by uncertainty.

Unlike their BRC-20 equivalents on Bitcoin Ordinals, which boast a market capitalization in excess of $400 million, meme tokens on the Dogecoin network currently lack a liquid market and a well-defined value proposition.

In any case, there are several methods for minting such tokens. One popular strategy involves DPal, a browser extension wallet for Dogecoin. Numerous users appear to use this wallet for token minting. 

However, this project does not offer an “indexer” solution, making it difficult for users to determine the number of tokens issued and complicating the trading markets that can be built around these tokens.

Adding competition to the mix is the token minting service drc-20.org, a website of a project called Doge Labs that allows users to mint tokens on Dogecoin as well. 

Unlike DPal, Doge Labs claims to be the first membership service that can index DRC-20 tokens. This feature claims to provide a network-wide database and registry of these tokens which is necessary to enable the exchange of these meme tokens. 

Focus on the price of the Dogecoin (DOGE) crypto

While some meme coins have posted huge gains in recent weeks, Dogecoin is still looking for a solid level to reverse the trend, as it has yet to see a big rally since it started falling last month. 

In fact, soon after it broke an important resistance line on 3 April, it met resistance and sharply rejected the $0.105 level. This rejection led to weeks of bearish action and the price to a low of $0.692 this week, testing the resistance line again as support. 

However, Dogecoin is recording a new decline in the 4-hour period and may see another one soon. However, if the asset continues to find support above this resistance line, the price is likely to bounce higher. 

For now, there is not much to look forward to because of the current calm throughout the market. With the current price set on the daily chart, an increase in volatility will determine whether the major meme currency recovers or extends the decline.

In conclusion, if DOGE regains momentum from the current trading level, we can expect a quick push above a nearby resistance level of $0.0727. Pushing above that price level should allow buying at $0.079 and $0.085. 

However, a continuation of bearish action could cause the price to slip to the $0.068 support level. Below the level is the March low of $0.0627 before reaching $0.06, a six-month low.

https://en.cryptonomist.ch/2023/05/18/crypto-analysis-sponge-mana-amp/

News inside the crypto market: prices, analysis, performance and latest news on SpongeBob (SPONGE), Decentraland (MANA) and Amp (AMP) coins below. 

Crypto analysis of SpongeBob (SPONGE), Decentraland (MANA) and Amp (AMP) 

It is worth mentioning that SpongeBob (SPONGE) is the native crypto in ERC-20 format launched on the DEX Uniswap on 4 May 2023.

Decentraland (MANA), on the other hand, is a blockchain and metaverse platform that allows users to purchase virtual land and participate in a unique virtual community. 

Amp, finally, is an Ethereum token that aims to place collateral on payments made in the Flexa network, making them instant and secure. 

Is the crypto Sponge ready for another price rally? 

Sponge, the crypto that combines memes and AI technology, is leveraging its iconic namesake to make a splash in the cryptocurrency market. 

Mission successful so far, as its Twitter account has surpassed 40,000 followers, demonstrating the community’s solid support for the token.

It is precisely this community support that has helped SPONGE reach a market capitalization of more than $13.4 million, according to CoinMarketCap, despite the project only being in its infancy.

In the past week, the SPONGE token has been listed on seven CEXs, including Gate.io, LBank, and MEXC. These listings have attracted the attention of several ‘crypto influencers,’ such as moonpie666, who recently tweeted a meme about Sponge for his more than 20,000 followers: 

Currently, SPONGE is trading for $0.00054, with the price retreating in recent days. 

However, there is a growing belief among investors that the coin may be preparing for another price rally, given the traction it is now experiencing on social media.

Specifically, DEXTools reports that over $1.8 million SPONGE were traded in the last day on Uniswap alone. 

Moreover, along with a purchase order worth $91,000, it appears that the token still has exceptional support, a factor that will no doubt play a decisive role in its future growth. 

The MANA token bullish thanks to Apple’s foray into the metaverse

After nearly a month of decline, the price of Decentraland (MANA) has risen again in the last seven trading days. Not surprisingly, on-chain data show that the accumulation frenzy by large investors has been key. 

Moreover, one wonders if Apple‘s recent foray into the metaverse might not lead to a more bullish MANA price forecast. 

As we know, Apple made the long-awaited move into the metaverse by listing an Axie Infinity game on the App Store. 

Logically, prominent GameFi tokens such as AXS, MANA, and SAND all jumped when the markets reacted to the news. Hence, with more than 1.8 billion active Apple devices worldwide, blockchain-native games could now penetrate a much wider market.

Reason why on-chain data reveal that Decentraland whales are already accumulating MANA to anticipate potential gains. 

In fact, the graph shows that Dencetraland whales, which hold 10 to 100 million MANA, added 21 million tokens between 11 and 17 May.

The 21 million new coins added are worth about $10 million at current market value. Moreover, this last week’s accumulation frenzy is even more remarkable when considering the fact that whales began May with a frenzied sell-off

In conclusion, if Apple goes to list blockchain plays, whales and other strategic retail investors will likely increase buying pressure. And this could eventually validate Decentraland’s bullish price forecast.

Focus on the AMP crypto price: comparison with Sponge and MANA 

The price of Amp (AMP) is $0.00300355 today, with a 24-hour trading volume of $3,279,683. This means a price increase of 0.54% in the last 24 hours, but a price decrease of -4.81%% in the last 7 days. 

With a circulating supply of 56 Billion AMP, Amp is valued with a market cap of $169,273,727. 

As a reminder, the most popular exchange to buy and trade Amp is BtcTurk PRO, where the most active currency pair AMP/TRY has a trading volume of $818,142. 

In addition, the daily volume of Amp (AMP) is $3,279,683 USD in the last 24 hours, which represents a -0.50% decrease from a day ago and a recent drop in market activity.

Amp’s market capitalization is $169,273,727 and is ranked No. 196 on CoinGecko at the moment. Anyway, with a -4.80% price decrease over the past 7 days, Amp is underperforming the global cryptocurrency market, which is up 2.10%. 

In addition, the crypto is also underperforming against similar Ethereum ecosystem currencies that are up 12.70%. However, the community continues to be on the rise, as more than 69% of users are optimistic about Amp (AMP).

https://en.cryptonomist.ch/2023/05/18/latest-crypto-news-chiliz-celo-aave/

The latest crypto market news: how are the coins Chiliz (CHZ), Celo (CELO) and Aave (AAVE) performing? 

Below are their current price trends, forecast for future prices, and an overview of the latest news on them. 

Analysis of the crypto assets Chiliz (CHZ), Celo (CELO) and and Aave (AAVE)

It is worth mentioning that CHZ is an ERC-20 token that runs on the Ethereum-based Chiliz blockchain. The token is used by users as currency to purchase NFTs on the Chiliz fan token marketplace. 

Celo, on the other hand, is a platform that serves as a global payment infrastructure for cryptocurrencies and targets mobile users. To this end, Celo’s goal is for financial activity to be accessible to anyone globally through the ability to send payments to and from any phone number in the world.

Finally, Aave is a decentralized lending system that allows users to lend, borrow, and earn interest on crypto assets, all without intermediaries.

The price of Chiliz (CHZ) indicates strong bearish sentiment

We see that the crypto Chiliz (CHZ) was trading at $0.1011 on 1 January 2023, before moving to $0.1202 on 10 January. Since then, it has experienced extreme price volatility, peaking at $0.1577 on 8 February for the first time in 2023. 

However, bears have prevailed on its price, bringing it back in recent weeks to $0.1075. In general, CHZ is in a descending momentum, forming its fourth consecutive red candle. 

Indeed, it has fallen below its 50- and 200-day Simple Moving Averages (SMAs), a bearish sentiment for the short and long term. Moreover, the Relative Strength Index (RSI) is 28.15, firmly in the oversold region below 30. 

This implies that the bears are in control of their price movement. The RSI is still moving downward, suggesting further price declines for the asset in the short term. 

However, since the asset is oversold, a retracement is likely if it rises from its nearest support level.

In conclusion, we see that the Chiliz crypto is rapidly approaching the $0.108 support level and a drop below this will send the asset’s price into free fall to record lower lows.

The bears at the $0.11685719 resistance level are active and resistant to a surge of the asset. However, CHZ is already in the oversold region and is likely to reach a consolidation point soon.

Focus on the price of the crypto Celo, the comparison with Chiliz and Aave 

Based on the latest data, we see that the price of Celo (CELO) is $0.548591 today, with a 24-hour trading volume of $11,381,694. This means that the price has increased by 0.07% in the last 24 hours and 5.71% in the last 7 days. 

With a circulating supply of 500 Million CELO, Celo is valued with a market cap of $273,044,271. 

As we know, the most popular exchange to buy and trade Celo is Binance, where the most active currency pair CELO/USDT has a trading volume of $1,965,625.

In addition, Celo’s daily volume is $11,381,694 in the last 24 hours, which represents a -42.90% from a day ago and a recent decline in market activity. Celo’s market capitalization is $273,044,271 and is ranked #134 on CoinGecko today. 

Finally, we see that, with a price increase of 5.70% over the past 7 days, Celo is outperforming the global cryptocurrency market, which is up 1.70%, while underperforming against similar coins in the Celo ecosystem, which are up 18.20%.

In any case, the community is bullish, as more than 100% of users are optimistic about Celo (CELO).

Will bullish people support the recovery of the Aave crypto? 

We see that the Aave crypto has fluctuated between the $60 and $65 price range in the past five days. In addition, the narrow range followed a breach below the March swing low of $65 on 8 May. 

The slight bullish momentum after BTC’s move pushed AAVE’s price to the late February/April low of $65. However, the $65 range low could become a key hurdle to overcome for bullish traders to gain leverage.

In the chart we can see how the price action was below 20 and 100 Exponential Moving Average (EMA), reaffirming the sellers’ upper hand. In addition, the low $65 range could offer resistance to bullish efforts, especially if BTC fails to stay above $27k. 

However, price rejection at $65 could bring AAVE down and retest the lower support level of $60. Consequently, any violation of the $60 level could plunge AAVE to $56 or the January low of $51. 

Conversely, the above thesis will be invalidated if AAVE closes above $65. Logically, such a decisive daily candle closing above the range lows will rekindle the rising influence of the bulls.

However, they will have to clear the hurdles at 20-EMA ($67.2) and 100-EMA ($73.2) to aim for the late February/April highs of $84. 

In all this, the Relative Strength Index (RSI) bounced just above the 25 mark, showing slight buying pressure. On the other hand, the Chaikin Money Flow (CMF) declined after rebounding from zero, highlighting that capital inflows have declined.

https://en.cryptonomist.ch/2023/05/18/crypto-news-ripple-xrp-acquires-metaco/

Recent major news for Ripple (XRP): the leader in blockchain and crypto solutions will acquire Metaco, a Swiss-based provider of digital asset custody and tokenization technology, for $250 million. 

With this acquisition, Ripple will expand its business offerings, providing customers with the technology to custody, issue and liquidate any type of tokenized asset.

Ripple (XRP) and the purchase of Metaco to address the crypto custody market 

As anticipated, Ripple (XRP), a leading crypto company, recently confirmed the acquisition of custody service provider Metaco for $250 million. 

In this way, Ripple addresses the growing institutional cryptocurrency custody market, which is expected to reach $10 billion by 2030. 

Not surprisingly, diversification into custody solutions is a cornerstone of Ripple’s corporate and product strategy, providing new revenue opportunities for the company.

Ripple and Metaco share a strong ‘cryptographic DNA,’ top-tier institutional clients, and a long history of working with regulated entities to create secure enterprise-grade solutions. 

Through this, Metaco will significantly accelerate its growth trajectory through access to Ripple’s established base of hundreds of customers, capital to meet new demand, and resources to continue its commitment to banking and institutional customers.

Brad Garlinghouse, CEO of Ripple, said the following about the acquisition: 

“Metaco is a proven leader in institutional digital asset custody with an exceptional executive bench and a truly unmatched customer track record. Through the strength of our balance sheet and financial position, Ripple will continue pressing our advantage in the areas critical to crypto infrastructure. Bringing on Metaco is monumental for our growing product suite and expanding global footprint.”

Best known for its flagship payment products, Ripple was the first company to address multibillion-dollar weaknesses in cross-border payments using blockchain and cryptocurrency. 

The company focused on solving the most difficult problems, such as building a blockchain-enabled payment infrastructure from scratch, before expanding its product offerings to address new use cases such as cash management and tokenization, including central bank digital currencies (CBDCs). 

Ripple becomes Metaco’s sole shareholder 

On the other hand, Metaco offers a secure and versatile mission-critical custody infrastructure for institutions to scale new business models in the crypto-economy. 

Its core Harmonise offering is the institutional standard for digital asset custody and tokenization infrastructure, chosen by the world’s largest global custodians, top-tier banks, financial institutions and corporations. 

Metaco’s technology solutions are currently offered in various jurisdictions, including Switzerland, Germany, Turkey, France, the United Kingdom, the United States, Singapore, Australia, Hong Kong and the Philippines, among others.

In fact, Monica Long, president of Ripple, stated the following. 

“As the go-to provider for traditional finance companies looking to integrate crypto and blockchain solutions, Ripple is uniquely positioned to address the growing institutional crypto custody market, expected to reach nearly $10T by 2030. Custody is a key facet of the infrastructure required for enterprise crypto services. Adding these capabilities to Ripple’s already growing product solutions means we can continue to support customers as they look to utilise crypto and blockchain for real-world use cases across all phases of adoption.”

Adrien Treccani, founder and CEO of Metaco, said instead: 

“Our mission has always been to enable institutions to thrive in the digital asset economy with the help of our core infrastructure and expertise, and we are delighted to join forces with the team at Ripple, who share that passion. This deal will enable Metaco to leverage Ripple’s scale and market strength to reach our goals and deliver value to our clients at a faster pace. We look forward to continuing to serve unprecedented levels of institutional demand with the utmost excellence in delivery, as our clients have come to expect.”

In summary, Ripple will become the sole shareholder of Metaco, which will continue to operate as an independent brand and business unit led by founder and CEO Adrien Treccani.

Price of crypto Ripple (XRP) reacts to lawsuit against the SEC

In a recent significant victory for Ripple, District Court Judge Analisa Torres denied the SEC’s motion to seal Hinman’s speech documents.

Specifically, Judge Torres stated that the documents were judicial records subject to a strong presumption of public access. 

Hence, he ruled that Hinman’s speech documents would reasonably influence the court’s decision on the motion, thus making them important evidence.

The court’s decision to admit Hinman‘s speech into evidence favored Ripple, leading to a positive market response. In fact, following the news, the price of Ripple’s native crypto, XRP, surged by 5.35% and a significant increase in trading volume. 

This surge suggests a return of investor enthusiasm in XRP. Indeed, the cryptocurrency managed to break through key resistance levels and reached an intraday high of $0.44.

However, although the bullish momentum is favorable, investors should be cautious about profit-taking following the price rise because it could trigger a selling spree and potentially cause Ripple’s price to retrace some or all of the gains made on 17 May. 

The high RSI value of 81 suggests a looming pullback. Traders should be prepared for a possible correction in Ripple’s price, with the worst-case scenario of a revisit of the lows of 16 May around $0.420.

https://en.cryptonomist.ch/2023/05/17/tether-15-profits-bitcoin/

It’s official: stablecoin Tether will allocate up to 15% of its net realized operating profits to the purchase of Bitcoin. 

Below are all the details. 

Tether plans to increase Bitcoin purchases

As we know, stablecoins, including Tether, have come under the magnifying glass since the demise of Terra UST in 2022. 

More specifically, issues of reliability, robustness, and trust arrived when questions began to arise about the security of these stablecoins. 

However, Tether has fully maintained the claim that USDT is overcollateralized. Not only that, the stablecoin issuer also released its first quarter collateral report, in which it unveiled a reserve of $1.5 billion in BTC. 

Now, as part of its new investment strategy, Tether is planning to increase Bitcoin purchases. According to Tether’s latest announcement, the company will allocate up to 15% of its net realized operating profits to the purchase of Bitcoin. 

Tether also assured that future and current BTC reserves would not exceed the ‘cushion’ of shareholder capital.

The stablecoin issuer also assured that it would hold possession of the private keys associated with all of its Bitcoin holdings. In addition, the statement highlights that only realized profits would be used for the investment strategy.

Speaking about the decision made, Paolo Ardoino, CTO of Tether, said the following: 

“Our investment in Bitcoin is not only a way to improve the performance of our portfolio, it is also a method of aligning ourselves with a transformative technology that has the potential to reshape the way we do business and live our lives.”

Market uncertainty also affects Tether 

The on-chain analytics platform, Glassnode Alerts, shared on Twitter today some new data regarding Tether (USDT). Specifically, according to the post, the outflow volume (7d MA) for USDT reached a one-month low at 22,257,226,754 USDT. 

This recent drop marks a decrease from the previous one-month low of 22,651,224,549 USDT recorded on 1 May 2023. The outflow volume for USDT, which sets a new low, means fewer people are withdrawing or moving USDT from crypto exchanges.

Glassnode also tweeted this morning that the number of receiving addresses for USDT recently reached a 5-month low of 2,724,173. This is a slight decrease from the previous 5-month low of 2,727,774, observed on 15 May 2023.

What does the achievement of these new lows mean for Tether? 

The decline in address receipt mentioned above could suggest a potential decrease in the number of users or entities actively receiving USDT. 

In addition, it could also indicate a reduction in demand for USDT or a shift in user preferences to other cryptocurrencies or stablecoins.

Either way, the fact that both of these metrics have reached new monthly lows indicates a lack of confidence or uncertainty in the cryptocurrency market. 

Traders may be reluctant to make significant moves with their USDT because of market volatility or other factors affecting the broader crypto ecosystem.

Looking at CoinMarketCap‘s data, for example, we see that the last 24 hours have not been kind to most cryptocurrencies in the market. 

In fact, most of the top ten cryptocurrencies by market capitalization suffered price losses in the last day.

This includes both market leaders, Bitcoin (BTC) and Ethereum (ETH), which suffered price losses of 0.85% and 0.62%, respectively, during this period. 

Meanwhile, other altcoins such as XRP, Cardano (ADA), Polygon (MATIC), and Solana (SOL) experienced price declines of more than 1%.

https://en.cryptonomist.ch/2023/05/17/compound-arrive-arbitrum-l2-ethereum/

Crypto news: Compound Finance has announced that it will expand onto Arbitrum, L2 of Ethereum, with a clear intent in implementing its services in DeFi. 

Below are all the details. 

Compound Finance on Arbitrum: what does it mean?

As anticipated, Compound Finance announced that it is implementing its latest iteration on the popular Arbitrum scaling solution. 

As a result, lending and borrowing inactive cryptocurrencies is becoming cheaper. 

Compound, which is one of the original decentralized finance (DeFi) products, allows users to lend and borrow various cryptocurrencies. The platform was also one of the first to experiment with so-called yield farming, distributing its native COMP token to platform users in 2020. 

The token currently trades at $34.7. Arbitrum, on the other hand, is the industry’s largest layer-2 scaling solution by total value locked (TVL), per data from L2 Beat.

Compared to other popular Ethereum scaling solutions, such as Optimism or zkSync, Arbitrum is superior with as much as $5.8 billion. However, Compound’s implementation on Arbitrum is limited to a few cryptocurrencies, such as Ethereum (ETH), Arbitrum, Wrapped Bitcoin (WBTC), and GMX, the token that powers the decentralized exchange of the same name. 

That’s because the latest iteration of the project, called V3, is optimized to manage risk by reducing the amount of long-tail cryptographic resources that can be lent and borrowed.

Ethereum Layer-2 solutions: rollup and zk-rollup 

In addition, it is worth noting that this year has turned into a ‘layer-2 season’ of sorts, given the launch of various governance tokens and the first instance of zero-knowledge-based rollup solutions entering the scene. 

Compared to ‘optimistic’ rollup solutions, such as those offered by Arbitrum and Optimism, zk-rollups leverage a much more complex cryptographic bit. Members of this niche market include Starknet, Polygon’s zkEVM, and zkSync. 

In addition, the collective TVL for these three projects is $320 million. Both solutions leverage rollups, which bundle transactions from Ethereum‘s core network, hence the term layer-2, and then convert those transactions in batches into a small data chunk.

This smaller chunk of data, called evidence, is what Ethereum ultimately validates. In this way, the core network remains relatively uncongested, keeping gas prices on the network low.

What is yield farming and how does it work? 

Yield farming, pioneered by Compound, is normally done using ERC-20 tokens on Ethereum, with rewards being a form of ERC-20 token. 

Almost all current yield farming transactions take place in the Ethereum ecosystem, although there is no certainty that this will remain the same in the future. In any case, the first step in yield farming involves adding funds to a liquidity pool, which are essentially smart contracts that contain funds. 

These pools feed a market in which users can trade, borrow, or lend tokens. After adding funds to a pool, one is officially a liquidity provider.

In exchange for locking funds in the pool, you are rewarded with fees generated by the underlying DeFi platform. Note that investing in ETH itself does not count as yield farming. 

Instead, lending ETH on a decentralized non-custodial money market protocol such as Aave, then receiving a reward, is for all intents and purposes yield farming. 

The same reward tokens can also be deposited into liquidity pools, and it is common practice for people to move their funds between different protocols to chase higher returns.

Not surprisingly, yield farmers often have a lot of experience with the Ethereum network and its technical aspects and move their funds across different DeFi platforms to get the best returns.

Finally, those who provide liquidity are also rewarded based on the amount of liquidity provided, so those who reap huge rewards have correspondingly huge amounts of capital behind them.

https://en.cryptonomist.ch/2023/05/17/revolut-new-crypto-course-avalanche/

Revolut, the global financial app, launches the fifth course in its “Learn” section, dedicated to Avalanche (AVAX). 

Revolut and the fifth crypto course on Avalanche (AVAX)

For UK and EEA (European Economic Area) customers of Revolut‘s global financial app, the fifth crypto course on Avalanche (AVAX) has just been launched.

Indeed, by logging into the dedicated “Learn” section, Revolut customers will be able to find out more about Avalanche’s eco-friendly blockchain, designed for both Web3 developers and enterprises. 

Not only that, the course will also explain how the Avalanche platform’s native token, AVAX, works, which is one of the latest cryptocurrencies offered to Revolut’s crypto community.

Here is the announcement on the social network of crypto-lovers, Twitter:

In addition to learning, Revolut rewards customers who test their cryptocurrency expertise with up to €15 from all courses, in different tokens.

Revolut and the new crypto course on Avalanche: how does it work?

As mentioned, Avalanche is the fifth crypto course launched by Revolut, following Crypto Basics, Polkadot, 1Inch, and a bonus Polkadot course. 

In general, Revolut’s “Learn” courses are designed to help customers improve their knowledge of cryptocurrencies and related topics, including blockchain, tokens, and popular protocols.

Not only that, over the past year, these courses have solidified their role in transforming cryptocurrency technical jargon into more accessible information for a wider audience, primarily among GenZ and Millennials.

And indeed, the impact of the feature has also been recognized by the second edition of the Pulse Report, published by FinTech consulting firm 11FS. Revolut’s “Learn” was chosen as a “top cryptocurrency star” in 2022 for its “simple and fun approach.”

As for Avalanche, Revolut’s new crypto course includes two lessons structured as follows:

• Lesson 1: Introduction to Avalanche – Customers will learn what the Avalanche consensus protocol is and how it works. In addition, the lesson explains how Avalanche differs from other blockchains.
• Lesson 2: How does Avalanche scale? Participants will learn about the concept of subnets and how Avalanche scaling models can contribute to the crypto ecosystem without a proportional increase in gas rates.

The knowledge behind the investments

Helping users understand how crypto projects work before investing is a real mission for Revolut. 

In this regard, Mazen Eljundi, Global Business Head of Crypto at Revolut, said: 

“We are excited to continue our mission of making the complex world of blockchain technology more accessible to everyone. We have welcomed hundreds of thousands of new users on board our ‘Learn’ program in the last month alone.

Interest in web3 educational content continues to increase at a promising and encouraging pace. This will be the fifth course we offer to our users, and we will have many more coming out in the coming months. 

Our commitment to providing high-quality education on the latest blockchain protocols is stronger than ever, and we are excited to see the impact our courses are having on our users’ understanding and adoption of this innovative technology.”

The global finance app, with 29 million customers worldwide, also launched “Collections” in mid-April, a new investment service that features 12 collections grouping more than 100 tokens. 

Through the new way of investing, Revolut users will be able to choose whether to purchase an entire collection and thus distribute their investment evenly among all the tokens in the collection.

https://en.cryptonomist.ch/2023/05/17/twitter-finance-elon-musk/

Recently, Elon Musk has not held back with criticism on Twitter, particularly addressing the traditional financial system, calling it very inefficient.

The news is also reported by Watcher.Guru. 

Full details below. 

Here is what Elon Musk said on Twitter 

In a recent space on Twitter, Elon Musk expressed his opinion about traditional financial platforms, pointing out that the existing ones are not up to progress and have a lot of room for improvement. 

Specifically, the billionaire entrepreneur hit the system with harsh words, labeling it as “very inefficient,” too centralized and heterogeneous. In fact, the possibilities for creating a new system may be there. 

Specifically, Musk stated the following on Twitter: 

“I think there is potential to create a more efficient financial system.” 

As we know, constant improvements are quite essential to the evolution of any industry. Over time, technology becomes obsolete and more and more gaps are created that need to be filled. 

This is precisely the case with the traditional financial system at the moment. In fact, with the advent of DeFi and more transparent solutions, people have increasingly moved from one system to another.

Given the various problems that plague the traditional financial landscape, a new system with tailored specifications can increase convenience for consumers. In addition, Musk also stressed that there is no point in disrupting things unnecessarily: 

“If there’s a better product, that’s great.” 

It didn’t end there though, because Musk went on to state the following: 

“Money is just information. This is the only thing that would be poetic to automatically realize the vision I have for X.” 

What is X? “The app for everything” envisioned by Elon Musk. 

This is not the first time Musk has talked about “X,” the everything app. Specifically, Elon Musk intends to convert Twitter into this “app for everything” called X. 

That means enabling the platform to offer financial services, including peer-to-peer transactions, savings accounts and even debit cards, according to the report.

Specifically, X is inspired by the Chinese app WeChat, in which there is a platform that combines apps such as Facebook, Twitter, Uber, Instagram and Substack. 

But not only that, because in addition to booking services, ordering food, and expressing opinions, it is one of the most popular entertainment and news portals in China.

It is also a major fintech provider, one of the country’s largest online finance and payment networks: users exchange money, pay for goods and services, and borrow money. 

Finally, businesses use it as well: the WeChat mini-program business is worth about $240 billion, and users have grown 12.5% to 450 million by 2021.

However, Musk has promised that his “X” app will differentiate itself in one very important respect: freedom of speech. In fact, control of the Communist Party dominates WeChat and especially its content. 

Musk, on the other hand, had said:

“I hope even my worst critics will stay on Twitter, because that’s what free speech is all about.” 

In addition, it is worth noting that the platform has already begun applying for regulatory licenses to enter the payments business in the United States. Twitter is designing software to eventually introduce payments across the platform. 

In fact, Esther Crawford, a senior Twitter employee, has begun outlining the architecture required to facilitate payments on the platform, along with a small team of employees.

Elon Musk resigns as CEO of Twitter

Elon Musk’s resignation as CEO of Twitter had formally come as early as December 2022. However, at the time, the entrepreneur made it clear that he wanted to take his time to find someone “crazy enough” to take his place. 

Now that the resignation is effective, Twitter’s new CEO has been found and it is Linda Yaccarino, a well-known name in the press landscape and beyond. 

Initially, we know, no other information had been released about Twitter’s new CEO other than that she was a woman, that she would take office within six weeks, and that she would replace Musk in the management-administrative role, but not in the Chief Technology Officer and Product and Software Officer roles.

As reported by The Wall Street Journal, Linda Yaccarino last month had participated with Elon Musk in an industry conference with a talk focused on the future of Twitter named “from conversations to partnerships.” 

Then, in the days leading up to Elon Musk’s announcement, Linda Yaccarino resigned her position at NBCUniversal, where she had worked for eleven years, rising to the position of global head of advertising and partnerships. 

Finally, on Friday 12 May, came official confirmation from Elon Musk, who in a tweet welcomed Linda Yaccarino to the platform and reiterated, perhaps more to users than to the newcomer, that the goal to be pursued further is the transformation of Twitter into X, “the everything app.” 

In view of all the business goals, the main task of Twitter’s new CEO will be to restore the social platform’s finances, which were already less solid than imagined. 

Moreover, in recent months, they have become even less so because of some of Elon Musk’s controversial decisions, such as reactivating the Twitter profile of Donald Trump and other representatives of the American radical right who had previously been banned from the platform.

https://en.cryptonomist.ch/2023/05/17/performance-bitcoin-ethereum-today/

What is the crypto market sentiment today and how is the trend of the most prestigious crypto assets: Bitcoin and Ethereum? 

Below are all the details about it. 

Trend of Bitcoin and Ethereum today: bullish market? 

Based on the latest data, we see that one on-chain metric is showing bullish market signals despite the fact that Bitcoin prices are falling at the moment. Specifically, the on-chain indicator RHODL is in a similar position to the start of the last two major bullish Bitcoin markets.

Moreover, the indicator, which was created by Philip Swift in 2020, uses a ratio of Realized Value HODL Waves. Yesterday, Swift said that when he created the indicator, one thing that had struck him was the way it had shown the formation of a new bullish run. 

The analyst added that this was the moment when the value of the most recent coin ratio started to increase. Finally, Swift stated: 

“This is where we are right now. Don’t panic about small price pullbacks. Zoom out.”

As for the performance of Ethereum, we see that its price has been rising since early 2023. The digital asset is currently trading at $1,813.68, a 51% increase from its price at the beginning of the year. 

However, one wonders whether with the bearish market around the corner ETH will be able to cross the $4,000 threshold. It is worth mentioning that $4000 is used as a benchmark because Ethereum was able to reach such heights in the last bull run.

In fact, the cryptocurrency reached an all-time high price of $4,891.70 in November 2021. However, less than a year later, Ethereum was hit hard by the cryptocurrency winter. 

In any case, as the price of ETH has been recovering sharply since the beginning of 2023, experts believe that when the market fully recovers, Ethereum will reach the $4,000 mark and even continue to beat its previous ATH.

Focus on the price of Bitcoin (BTC): will it return to $24,000? 

Regarding the trend and price of Bitcoin, we see that in late February it emerged from the accumulation zone, which could signal the emergence of a new speculation zone.

In addition, Bitcoin has crossed several long-term on-chain indicators in recent months and remained above them. Specifically, it crossed the 200-week moving average in mid-March and is still above it, suggesting a change in long-term trend. 

The 200wma is currently at $25.818, according to data from Woo Charts. In addition, Bitcoin’s realized price is only $19.914. This is the value of all BTC in circulation at the price they last moved.

However, Bitcoin market sentiment is currently neutral as the cryptocurrency correction continues. BTC’s fear and greed index has dropped to 50 as bulls and bears fight for supremacy. 

The same index reached a local high of 69 last month when BTC surpassed $30,000 for the first time in nearly a year. Hence, BTC prices are currently consolidating around the $27,000 range. 

This means that the crypto par excellence has not moved much since the weekend, but has lost 5.3% in the past two weeks. In addition, the asset has lost 12% since its high in 2023 in mid-April. Analysts have suggested that it could return to $24,000 during this correction, as buying pressure seems to have evaporated.

Trend of Ethereum today: Coinbase suspends ETH staking rewards

Crypto exchange Coinbase has temporarily suspended reward payments for its ETH staking service due to a technical complication, adding that it will take three days to resolve the issue.

However, the exchange assured users that it is still accumulating rewards and will establish their payment once the problem is resolved, which is expected in the next 48-72 hours. 

As we know, Ethereum staking is in high demand and well-known, as Coinbase, and others, allows users to deposit their ETH and earn staking rewards, the rate of which is currently 6%. 

The advantage of Coinbase’s Ethereum staking service, which has led to its growing popularity, is the fact that it does not require a minimum of 32 ETH to start staking.

It is also worth noting that the discontinuation of the staking service has nothing to do with the US Securities and Exchange Commission’s (SEC) actions against ETH staking, unlike what happened to Kraken. 

In any case, ETH rewards were stuck on Coinbase last week because its systems did not support ETH addresses from external validators. The crypto community took to social media channels for clarification on the matter, with a large number of withdrawals stuck in the queue.

Coinabse also introduced the Coinbase Wrapped Staked ETH utility token (cbETH), which is a 1:1 representation of ETH in stakes. This token allows holders to use it as collateral in the DeFi market.

Finally, we see that Coinbase is also seeing an increase in ETH inflows as a result of increased staking rewards. This is mainly due to memecoins taking over the Ethereum network, such as PEPE, which has clogged the network and is driving up gas rates.

https://en.cryptonomist.ch/2023/05/17/crypto-news-gala-v2-airdrop-announced/

Important crypto news: Gala v2 Airdrop recently announced

GALA holders are thus scheduled for an airdrop in the current month, although they should be careful about keeping their funds on exchanges, liquidity pools or smart contracts. 

Below are all the details. 

Gala v2 Airdrop: crypto exchanges contacted for smooth transition  

As anticipated, the Web3 Gala Games project will distribute GALA v2 tokens to all GALA holders on 15 May, the team announced in a blog post. 

In addition, an automatic 1:1 conversion has been set up for all users, with support for the GALA v1 token being removed immediately. In any case, no action is required from users holding GALA in their Ethereum wallets.

However, the team has advised users to remove their GALA tokens from any liquidity pools or smart contracts before the snapshot on 15 May, because if the tokens are left in a liquidity pool, the liquidity pool will be released and the GALA may not be recoverable.

Not only that, exchanges have been contacted to facilitate a smooth transition, but the team “strongly recommends” storing the tokens in a personal wallet to ensure that the drop is delivered directly to the holder.

In any case, the update to the Ethereum smart contract brings improvements including improved burning mechanisms, security enhancements, and future upgrade possibilities.

Gala Games: the innovative Web3 game

As we know, Gala Games is one of the largest Web3 game projects, which has launched titles including The Walking Dead: Empires and Spider Tanks. 

It also has a larger ecosystem that includes the Web3 entertainment platform Gala Film. The GALA token is used as a payment method for digital assets within the ecosystem.

Not surprisingly, the airdrop comes on the heels of the news that Hollywood stars Danny Trejo, Mena Suvari and Emilio Rivera have been announced as guest stars in “RZR” , a Web3 TV series by Gala Film.

The eight-episode show is set in a dystopian Los Angeles where cryptocurrency and artificial intelligence are deeply intertwined with the criminal world.

Gala has also announced, in collaboration with cryptocurrency exchange Huobi, that it will support users affected by an incident that saw significant losses for them in November 2022.

In that case, according to Huobi, pNetwork minted over $1 billion worth of pGALA tokens “out of thin air” on the BNB Chain and sold them on PancakeSwap, causing GALA tokens on the BNB Chain to plummet by 97%.

As a result, Huobi and Gala pledged to distribute up to $50 million to GALA token holders who lost money due to the pGALA incident.

Gala Games and Houbi’s lawsuit against pNetwork

As a result of the above, Huobi and Gala filed a lawsuit in April against pNetwork to recover the lost funds. Specifically, Huobi has contacted Gala Games’ legal team and will join forces to protect its brand reputation and the interests of its users. 

In a statement, Huobi invited all organizations and users affected by the pGALA incident to join the joint lawsuit against pNetwork. Huobi would come to the aid of $pGALA users affected by the recent attack. 

Under the planned recovery plan, Huobi would jointly bear the cost of compensation, providing $25 million in cash and capital equivalent to users who suffered losses. 

The compensation package includes 15 million USDT and $10 million in equity compensation. In addition, Gala Games will receive $25 million in node compensation. 

The move by Huobi and Gala Gams has reportedly come after pNetwork issued pGALA tokens in November 2022. The issuance caused a significant drop in the value of the token, leading to losses for many investors. 

The joint lawsuit allegedly aims to reverse the token losses and protect the interests of those affected by the incident. 

Experts see the joint lawsuit by Huobi and Gala Games as a move to restore industry confidence and a message to other companies that such incidents will not be taken lightly.

https://en.cryptonomist.ch/2023/05/17/mica-whats-next-crypto/

Breaking news for the blockchain industry: European Union finance ministers recently voted unanimously to adopt the crypto markets regulation called MiCA. 

What will happen next? Below are all the details on the matter. 

EU adopts regulation on crypto assets: MiCA

As anticipated, the European Union’s Economic and Financial Affairs Council, which includes the finance ministers of all member states, adopted the regulation on cryptocurrency markets (MiCA) after a vote on 16 May.

Specifically, finance ministers from 27 member states voted in favor of the MiCA bill and amendments to several regulations and directives related to the new legislation.

In conjunction with the adoption of the MiCA, two other pieces of legislation were also adopted by the European Parliament, including the regulation on information accompanying transfers of funds and certain cryptographic assets.

In addition, the European Parliament formally adopted the MiCA legislation on 20 April, paving the way for final approval by the European Council before the regulatory parameters enter into force.

We see that the legislation establishes clear guidelines and regulatory requirements for the use of cryptocurrencies, related services and activities throughout the European Union. The scope of the legislation covers a range of cryptocurrencies, digital assets, utility tokens and stablecoins.

However, the next step for MiCA to become EU law requires that the bill be published in the Official Journal of the European Union. MiCA will come into force within a year, which means the regulations will finally become law in mid-2024.

What does the MiCA legislation provide for the crypto industry? 

As we know, the European Commission first proposed the MiCA in September 2020, and since then it has faced numerous obstacles and delays in its legislative path.

However, after that, the legislation was widely welcomed by cryptocurrency service providers and supporters alike, as its purpose is to create a single market environment across Europe in terms of regulatory requirements and operational procedures.

Specifically, key components of the MiCA legislation include registration and licensing requirements for cryptocurrency issuers, exchanges and wallet providers. 

In addition, stablecoin issuers must meet certain security and risk mitigation requirements, while cryptocurrency custodial services must ensure sufficient safety and security measures to address potential cyber and operational security issues.

Not only that, the legislation also provides a framework to prevent market abuse, insider trading and manipulative behavior in the cryptocurrency space. In other words, the main purpose of the MiCA regulation is to minimize the negative consequences of incidents in the future similar to the FTX insolvency. 

Furthermore, in determining whether a business will be subject to MiCA regulations, there are several factors to consider, such as scope. 

The latter, specifically, includes: asset-referenced tokens, e-money tokens, utility tokens, and activities outside the scope, such as NFTs subject to European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA) guidelines and DeFi subject to European Banking Authority (EBA) guidelines.

The impact of the MiCA on the EU cryptocurrency and blockchain market

As we know, the MiCA regulation represents a significant development for the cryptocurrency industry in the European Union. Before the MiCA, cryptocurrency companies had to comply with 27 different regulatory frameworks in EU member states. 

Under the MiCA, EU-wide regulations apply, allowing companies to operate in the entire EU cryptocurrency market with a MiCA license granted in one country. So what are the consequences now? 

First of all, this will increase the competitiveness of EU startups and could drive market share from unregulated competitors. In addition, the MiCA could encourage more institutional adoption and activity in the EU crypto and blockchain market. 

Patrick Hansen, director of EU strategy and policy at stablecoin issuer Circle, in this regard said that the MiCA will allow European crypto companies to scale and grow more rapidly, enabling licensed companies to offer their services in the world’s largest single market, according to the statement:

“Legal clarity will also foster innovation among financial institutions that were previously reluctant to launch products and services due to regulatory uncertainty. 

Furthermore, as MiCA is the first comprehensive regulatory framework for cryptographic assets of one of the world’s leading jurisdictions, it is likely to attract considerable foreign capital and talent to the region.”

Peter Grosskopf, co-founder of the decentralized finance project (DeFi) Unstoppable Finance, is also convinced that the MiCA will benefit the EU crypto and blockchain market. 

Indeed, first of all, companies outside Europe will have to register with a company in the EU, so there is a direct impact on job creation and tax payments. 

Second, many jurisdictions take an overly rigid approach to cryptocurrency regulation. In this regard, Grosskopf stated the following: 

“For example, the US regulates with enforcement. Compared to other regions, the EU will become a safe space for industry as a whole and innovators from all over the world will start building their businesses here.”

https://en.cryptonomist.ch/2023/05/16/crypto-news-litecoin-classic-ethereum/

Crypto news within the blockchain industry: what is the performance of Litecoin (LTC) and Ethereum Classic (ETC)? 

Here is a look at prices, market sentiment and more. 

Analysis of the crypto assets Litecoin (LTC) and Ethereum Classic (ETC)

Recall that Litecoin (LTC) is a peer-to-peer cryptocurrency and an open source software project released under an MIT/X11 license. On the other hand, Ethereum Classic (ETC) is a blockchain-based distributed computing platform that offers smart contract capabilities. 

Specifically, it is open source and supports a modified version of the Nakamoto consensus via transaction-based state transitions executed on a public Ethereum virtual machine. 

The rally for the crypto LTC after the Litecoin Ordinals Protocol 

Two weeks after the arrival of the Litecoin Ordinals Protocol, a concept similar to Bitcoin’s Ordinals Protocol, which allows people to mint NFTs on the underlying blockchain, there comes the rally in the price of the Litecoin (LTC) crypto. 

Specifically, we see that on 2 May the Litecoin community introduced a forked version of the BRC-20 standard called “LTC-20.” 

As a result, anyone can now inscribe an NFT, an LTC-20 standard token, into the Litecoin blockchain using its native Ordinals protocol.

The activity of the Litecoin network has increased since the introduction of the LTC-20 standard with the total number of daily on-chain transactions reaching a record high of more than 576,700 on 9 May, according to BitInfoCharts.com.

However, on 14 May, transactions had dropped to 511,290, although they were still higher than historical standards. Moreover, according to Santiment‘s data, the total number of active addresses on the Litecoin network has increased significantly since the introduction of the LTC-20 token standard.

In conclusion, we see that increased network activity underscores the growing demand for LTC, which may have influenced the recent price increases of Litecoin. 

Not only that, the euphoria surrounding the upcoming halving of Litecoin in August has also bolstered the bullish outlook for LTC.

Ethereum Classic (ETC) price near demand zone

Based on the latest data, we see that the price outlook for the crypto Ethereum Classic (ETC) favors the bulls, and an upward move is possible in the coming months as long as it stays above the $15.00 support. 

The price of ETC seems to be consolidating in the narrow range between $18.00 and $25.00 and is likely to break on both sides. 

However, it has repeatedly encountered resistance near the 200-day EMA, showing the downward trend. 

In any case, fortunately the price has not collapsed and is still holding above the $18.00 support. The volume of the ETC cryptocurrency is decreasing, showing that fewer participants are active and expect the price to consolidate more. 

Not only that, we also see the structure of ETC’s chart with the Bitcoin pair that is in a strong downward trend and continues to slide touching new lows. The correlation of the ETC price with the BTC pair is 0.75 and the USDT pair is 0.07. 

In early March, Ethereum Classic recorded profits from the higher end and began to decline, eroding previous gains and reaching annual price lows. 

However, in mid-March the general market sentiment improved and the fall stopped near $16.00. Finally, the price of Ethereum Classic recovered from support and created hope for a bullish reversal. 

The ETC’s slow and steady price reached $22.00 again, but unfortunately failed to maintain the higher levels. Consequently, as long as the ETC price does not exceed $18.00, the possibility of a rebound remains in favor of the bulls. 

However, if the situation worsens and prices fall below $18.00, then bears could try to test the yearly lows. Technical analysis suggests that the ETC price is close to the demand zone and is consolidating to form a bottom.

https://en.cryptonomist.ch/2023/05/16/crypto-news-prices-doge-venom-iota/

What crypto news involve the coins Dogecoin (DOGE), Venom and Iota (MIOTA)? 

Below are current and future price trends, with a focus on their performance and market sentiment.  

Crypto analysis of Dogecoin (DOGE), Venom and Iota (MIOTA) 

Recall that Dogecoin (DOGE) is a cryptocurrency whose logo is based on an internet meme depicting a Shiba dog, made popular thanks to the support of Elon Musk. 

Venom, on the other hand, is the world’s first regulated blockchain. The decentralized network operates under the jurisdiction of the ADGM, with a license to issue utility tokens.

Last but not least, IOTA (MIOTA) is an open-source project, which consists of a cryptographic token that is next-generation and already distributed, thus non-minable. 

Uncertain situation for the crypto Dogecoin 

The crypto Dogecoin (DOGE) is in a curious state of limbo. We see that as the once-frenzied selling pressure subsides, the market is seeing bullish traders hesitate, unsure of their next move. 

Moreover, while DOGE’s price action continues to attract the attention of enthusiasts and skeptics alike, its current trajectory is influenced by a unique combination of factors.

Retail accumulation has emerged as a significant force, driving the coin’s value amid relatively low demand from whales.

Specifically, since early May, addresses with small DOGE holdings have steadily accumulated the meme-inspired digital currency. 

This accumulation has instilled hope among DOGE holders, who anticipated a significant rally during the last meme coin season.

Since the beginning of May, addresses with DOGE from 100 million to 1 billion have reduced their holdings. We see that it was the second largest whale group ever, accounting for nearly 20% of the circulating supply.

In line with these expectations, retailers have been actively participating in the accumulation of DOGE in recent days, contributing to its overall demand.

Despite its status as a pioneering meme coin, Dogecoin has failed to secure a prominent position in the ongoing meme coin craze that has captured the attention of the crypto community.

However, while the accumulation trend among smaller DOGE holders indicates a potential increase in its value, there has also been significant selling pressure from some of the larger whales. 

This conflicting market behavior has created an environment of uncertainty for Dogecoin.

Venom Foundation and the partnership with the Kenyan government to create a Blockchain hub

The Venom Foundation, which recently caused a stir with the launch of testnet and hackathon, has also signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with the government of Kenya. 

We see that the partnership, as stated, aims to help establish a blockchain hub in Kenya, focusing on Web 3.0 application development. In addition, Venom’s blockchain hub is expected to attract a wide range of stakeholders, including developers, entrepreneurs, investors, and regulators.

As it was announced, the hub aims to promote the adoption and development of blockchain technology in Kenya and the broader African region. Not only that, the leading provider of blockchain-based payment gateways also aims to empower African communities. 

The main goals of the partnership are to create a bridge between traditional finance and the Web 3.0 world and regional economic growth by enabling seamless cross-border exchanges and transactions. 

In addition, tools and resources will be provided through this partnership to support African countries in laying a solid foundation for digital transformation. Similarly, Venom’s blockchain hub in Kenya will provide a platform for developers, startups and established companies to collaborate and innovate with blockchain technology. 

The hub will also offer training and education programs to help people and companies understand the potential of blockchain technology and how to integrate it into their operations.

As a result, Kenya’s treasury minister expressed his enthusiasm for the partnership in a tweet in which he said the collaboration with the Venom Foundation is a “significant boost” for Kenya and “will drive further innovation in various sectors, benefiting everyone both globally and domestically.” 

Focus on the price of crypto Iota (MIOTA), the comparison with Dogecoin and Venom 

Based on the latest data, we see that the price analysis of crypto IOTA (MIOTA) has been trading under bearish control for a long time. Hence, investor sentiments are taking a bearish turn regarding the IOTA token. 

The price recently broke its symmetrical triangle towards the beginning of May with a red wrapping candle. We estimate to see a further decline in value after a retest based on price action and technical indicators. 

IOTA’s price has a total market capitalization of 665.61 million and its current Alt rank is 72nd. Recently, the price has been attempting to recover its bullish trend after gaining buyer support around the beginning of January. 

Specifically, there was a bullish trend in which IOTA price gained more than 70% of its value. However, despite gaining significant buyer support and making numerous attempts, IOTA price failed to prevail over the 200 EMA.

After reaching support at $0.1400 near last December, the price of IOTA experienced a bullish recovery of 43%. Specifically, the price experienced a sharp 35% rejection. 

Then, the crypto recently broke its support level near $2,000, also breaking its attempt to move into a bullish trend.

https://en.cryptonomist.ch/2023/05/16/latest-crypto-news-lido-dax-grt/

What is happening within the crypto market and how are Daex (DAX), The Graph (GRT) and Lido (LDO) performing? 

Below is an in-depth look at their prices and the latest news. 

Crypto analysis of Daex (DAX), The Graph (GRT) and Lido (LDO)

It is worth mentioning that Daex (DAX) is a decentralized exchange that allows users to trade cryptocurrencies and tokens. The platform, in particular, offers a wide range of features, including margin trading and customer support. 

The Graph (GRT), on the other hand, is a decentralized open-source indexing protocol for blockchain data. Specifically, designed to enable querying on the Ethereum network.

Finally, Lido is one of the largest cryptocurrency staking platforms in the world, known for having to its credit the ability to staking coins such as Ethereum, Solana, Polygon, Polkadot, and Kusama.

Focus on the price of DAX, how does its performance compare to GRT and Lido crypto assets? 

The price of DAEX (DAX) is $0.00526483 today, with a 24-hour trading volume of $6,283. This implies a price decrease of -3.77% in the last 24 hours and a price increase of 7.91%%% in the last 7 days. 

With an outstanding bid of 350 Million DAX, DAEX is valued with a market cap of $1,866,936. In addition, we see that the daily volume of DAEX (DAX) is $6,282.58 in the last 24 hours, which represents a -53.80%, down from a day ago. 

Hence, in general, there is a recent decline in market activity. However, with a 7.90 % price increase over the past 7 days, the crypto DAX is outperforming the global cryptocurrency market, which is down -1.00 %. 

Despite this, it is underperforming currencies such as Ethereum and the like, which are up 12.70 %. In fact, we see that the market capitalization of DAEX (DAX) is $1,868,515 and is ranked No. 1718 on CoinGecko. 

Finally, we recall that the highest price paid for DAEX (DAX) is $0.158479, which was recorded about five years ago now. Hence, by comparison, the current price is -96.68% lower than the all-time high.

In contrast, the lowest price paid for DAEX (DAX) is $0.00132497, which was recorded in May 2020. Hence, in this case, the current price is 297.31% higher than the all-time low.

Will the GRT crypto see a bullish rally? 

Based on the latest data, we see that the price of The Graph (GRT) is currently trading near a crucial support level in the daily time frame. 

Hence, if it gets buyers’ support from the current price level, it is expected to rise 53% in the coming weeks.

Currently, it is trading near the demand zone around its previous support level. The current value of GRT is about $0.113 and has a market capitalization of $1.02 billion.

In addition, we observe that the price is gaining support from the 200 moving average, which could prove to be a crucial support zone in the near future. 

In any case, investor sentiments regarding GRT’s price are taking a bullish turn, as evidenced by the Social engagement metrics, which show an extremely positive surge of 512%. 

Specifically, there is a slight decline in bearish sentiment, a factor that suggests that investors are currently bullish about the GRT token and their interest is growing on various social platforms. 

Finally, we see that the RSI line is currently receiving resistance from the 14 SMA after crossing the midline. At the moment, the RSI line is trading at 34.32 points, while the 14 SMA is trending just below the 50 RSI point at about 38.51 points. 

At the moment, the stochastic RSI is trading near its extreme oversold levels. The %K line is giving a bullish intercept to the %D line near 14 points. Currently the value of the Stochastic RSI is 19.13 points. 

Crypto news: Lido allows withdrawals of staked ETH

The market-leading liquid staking platform, Lido, recently allowed withdrawals of staked ETH. Specifically, the move came when Lido launched the V2 update live on mainnet on 15 May.

The update is the largest to date for the protocol and has two main components, as it reads: 

“Lido V2 introduces two major components, with the most user-facing aspect being Ethereum withdrawals. This allows Ethereum stakers with Lido to directly unstake ETH through the protocol.”

Hence, Lido now has a withdrawal page where users can deposit their stETH tokens to get ETH in return. We see that Lido noted that under normal circumstances, the suspension period of stETH or wstETH can last from 1 to 5 days. 

In addition, stETH fed back into the protocol will be burned to release ETH in a 1:1 ratio. Accordingly, the announcement added that the update reduces a number of previous drawbacks related to Lido’s staking experience on Ethereum. 

Moreover, as stated, it enables more efficient use of staked ETH on Lido across the Ethereum DeFi ecosystem. Logically, a spike in withdrawals is now expected for today.

https://en.cryptonomist.ch/2023/05/16/irs-chainalysis-crypto-analysis-ukraine/

IRS Criminal Investigation (IRS-CI), the criminal investigative arm of the IRS, and Chainalysis, the blockchain data platform, announce new training courses to provide crypto analysis and cyber investigation tools to Ukraine. 

Full details are below. 

Chainalysis and IRS support Ukraine in crypto analytics 

As anticipated, the IRS and Chainalysis have teamed up to provide cybersecurity tools, and not only, to Ukraine at this particular time in history. 

As we know, Chainalysis is the blockchain platform that provides software, services, and research to government agencies, stock exchanges, financial institutions, as well as insurance and cybersecurity companies in more than 70 countries. 

On the other hand, IRS-CI is the criminal investigative arm of the IRS, responsible for conducting investigations into financial crimes, including tax fraud, drug trafficking, money laundering, public corruption, healthcare fraud, identity theft and more.

The goal of the courses sponsored by the two entities is to support Ukrainian authorities in enforcing sanctions and conducting effective cyber investigations at this sensitive time in history. 

In fact, as part of the partnership with Ukraine, IRS-CI donated licenses for Chainalysis Reactor, a cryptocurrency investigation platform, for up to fifteen users.

Specifically, the training enhances existing information sharing and lays the groundwork for new collaboration between Ukrainian and US law enforcement agencies to target financial networks used by sanctioned Russian oligarchs attempting to hide their assets.

The initiative has been well received in Ukraine, so much so that the cyber police department of the National Police of Ukraine, the Economic Security Bureau, the Information and Cyber Security Department of the Security Service, and the Prosecutor General’s Office are all participating in the cyber training.

Currently, IRS-CI is conducting twenty-three sanctions-related investigations. The agency is actively working with the Office of Foreign Assets Control to support sanctions designation investigations and freeze assets controlled by or associated with those on the list of specially designated nationals and blocked persons. 

Some statements regarding Chainalysis and IRS initiatives in Ukraine 

Regarding the initiatives proposed by Chainalysis and the IRS in Ukraine, we see that Jim Lee, head of the IRS-CI, stated the following: 

“Global financial crimes often consist of complex webs of offshore holdings and anonymous transactions. These trainings help participants can hone their digital investigative skills to trace the source of blockchain funds and unmask cryptocurrency transactions with cryptocurrency forensic tools.”

He then renewed his belief that sharing tools not only safeguards the US financial system, but also the global economy. 

In contrast, Eduard Fedorov, acting director of Ukraine’s Economic Security Office, said the following: 

“It is important for us to identify all Russian assets on the territory of Ukraine. We resist the aggressor state not only on the battlefield, but also on the economic front. The international experience of conducting investigations using digital data and the study of algorithms for combating financial networks contributes to increasing the professionalism of our employees.”

Not only that, Michael Gronager, co-founder and CEO of Chainalysis, also said: 

“From the facilitation of donations to ransomware attacks and sanctions evasion, cryptocurrency is playing an unprecedented role in Ukraine in both good ways and bad.  We commend the work of IRS-CI in empowering Ukrainian law enforcement with the data, tools, and training to detect and investigate illicit blockchain activity as the stakes for doing so continue to accelerate.”

Finally, Yurii Vykhodets, police colonel of the Cyber Police Department of the National Police of Ukraine, said: 

“Today, the Cyber Police counteracts not only the usual facts of crime, but also provides resistance to Russian forces on the internet. One key area is the identification and elimination of centers of support for occupation forces that raise funds for the purchase of things necessary for the war.”

Chainalysis on how scammers strategize depending on market conditions 

During a recent webinar regarding crypto-implemented crimes that affect consumers, Eric Jardine, head of cybercrime research at Chainalysis, explained how fraudsters modify their strategies according to changes in the market.

In fact, according to Jardine, although overall revenue from crypto scams declined in 2022, not all frauds played out the same way, he explained: 

“One of the novelties of this year’s report was the division of scams into types. We found that not all scams behaved the same way in the context of the bear market.”

As we all know, the 2022 collapse of Terra put many crypto investors on edge, and as a result scammers turned to other strategies, such as exploiting greed with free giveaway scams. 

In fact, Jardine went on to explain the following: 

“It is suggestive that there is an adaptation on the part of scammers and as market conditions make investment scams unlikely to be profitable, they could replace their tactics with other scams that play on a different emotional sense.”

According to the data presented by Jardine, as soon as investment scams cease to be effective, ‘romantic’ scams and giveaways increase, suggesting that scammers are not just “playing the same script over and over again” but are able to change depending on market conditions.

https://en.cryptonomist.ch/2023/05/15/crypto-news-pancakeswap-brise-sponge/

How are the coins PancakeSwap (CAKE), Spongebob (SPONGE) and Bitgert Chain (BRISE) performing within the crypto market? The following is an in-depth look at their prices and the latest news featuring them. 

Analysis of the crypto assets PancakeSwap (CAKE), Spongebob (SPONGE) and Bitgert Chain (BRISE)

As a reminder, PancakeSwap is a decentralized exchange (DEX) that operates under the Automatic Market Maker (AMM) model. Because of this, its users can exchange tokens in a completely decentralized manner, as liquidity pools are created that enable these exchanges.

Spongebob, on the other hand, is a decentralized memecoin developed on Ethereum. SPONGE, the native crypto in ERC-20 format, was launched on the Uniswap DEX on 4 May 2023. 

Finally, Bitgert Chain (BRISE) is an Ethereum-compatible Layer 1 blockchain built on Polkadot.

Is a reversal possible for the PancakeSwap (CAKE) crypto? 

We see that the v3 performance of PancakeSwap has been decent since its launch, as it has experienced growth on multiple fronts. In particular, on 9 May, PancakeSwap tweeted that to enable an orderly transition of TVL from v2 to v3, it has reduced the issuance of the v2 BNB Chain Farm by 35%, as planned.

However, although the status of v3 looked good, the same cannot be said for the CAKE crypto, whose price has fallen by 25% in the past seven days. In any case, according to CryptoQuant, the situation may soon turn around in favor of the token. 

In addition, we observe that v3’s performance has been on par for several weeks. However, it was interesting to note that while v3 continued to grow on the BNB chain, it simultaneously experienced a decline on Ethereum (ETH).

In fact, CAKE investors were struggling because the price of the token was still low. According to CoinMarketCap, the price of CAKE has declined in no small way over the past week. Currently, CAKE is trading around $1.90, with a market capitalization of more than $177 million.

However, CryptoQuant’s data gave hope for a better future, as the Relative Strength Index (RSI) and stochastic were both in oversold positions, suggesting a turnaround.

In conclusion, looking at the daily chart of PancakeSwap one can see that investors might expect CAKE’s price chart to turn green in the coming days.

The crypto Sponge is listed on Poloniex and MEXC

As we know, the crypto Sponge, the latest addition to the memecoin world, has caused a stir since its launch. Now, with recent listings on popular cryptocurrency exchanges such as Poloniex and MEXC, the Spongebob coin has caught the attention of traders and investors. 

However, the question many have been asking is whether Sponge will surpass the impressive price performance of the other popular and recent memecoin Pepe. Currently priced at $0.000452, the Sponge token has already made a name for itself as one of the most successful meme coins this year, despite falling 43.53% as a result. 

Moreover, following its listing on several exchanges, to the amazement of many, SPONGE came close to reaching a market capitalization of $100 million, and was ranked among the top 275 cryptocurrencies by market capitalization, according to CoinMarketCap. 

In any case, it is worth noting that SPONGE’s impressive price performance is part of a larger trend in the cryptocurrency market: the memecoin craze.  In recent months, these tokens have gained immense popularity among traders and investors. 

The success of memecoins such as SPONGE and Pepe Coin reminds us that the cryptocurrency market is not driven solely by technology and fundamental analysis. Rather, it is a reflection of human behavior and sentiment, which can be just as unpredictable and volatile as the market itself.

BRISE gains 21% in 24 hours, comparison with crypto assets PancakeSwap and Sponge 

BRISE has seen significant positive price movement in the past 24 hours. Although the BRC-20 token is still trading in the red zone, it appears to be attempting a market recovery after this sudden increase in its market value.

In fact, according to CoinMarketCap data, BRISE has risen 21.44% in the last day, making it the biggest gainer among the top 200 cryptocurrencies in the market, followed by the diamond of meme season, Pepecoin. 

This price movement has produced much excitement within the Bitgert community, as the BRISE token has been in a bearish state for some time, posting significant losses. 

Specifically, CoinMarketCap data show that BRISE has lost 3.09% and 26.07% of its value in the past seven and 30 days, respectively. 

BRISE opened its weekly market around a price region of $0.0000003534 and showed a steady decline in the following days before finding support around a market price of $0.0000002759 on 12 May.

Thereafter, BRISE began to show signs of consolidation before finally experiencing a price surge yesterday morning to $0.0000003781.

Although Bitgert’s native token slipped from such price heights, the drop was insignificant and BRISE appears to be gathering momentum for another price breakout. 

Interestingly, shortly after the BRC-20 token increase, Bitgert’s developer team announced a breakout of the 500 billion BRISE token offering, which had attracted more interest in the asset as token burn is usually associated with price increases. 

Currently, BRISE is trading around $0.0000003514, a gain of 0.4% in the last hour.

https://en.cryptonomist.ch/2023/05/14/pepe-crypto-disrupting-memecoin/

The new memecoin Pepe The Frog was launched on the 14th of April and has already reached a market cap of $691 million.

Needless to say, the new coin has not only played a leading role in the markets over the past few weeks, but has also been the talk of the crypto community on Twitter. 

Memecoin Pepe: analysis, prices and more on the new crypto 

Beyond all the comments made about the new crypto in recent weeks, we see that from a technical point of view, Pepe The Frog is an ERC-20 token on Ethereum. Since its launch, Pepe has gained 21,000%, reaching a trading volume of $30 million and a market cap of $139 million. 

Pepe is currently listed on Bitget, the exchange where several memecoins are listed, as well as OKX, Gate.io, Huobi and MEXC, and can also be bought on DEX Uniswap.

According to the founders themselves, the crypto was created as a response to the dog memecoins for Pepe. 

Be careful though, as Pepe is a memecoin with no intrinsic value or expectation of financial return. In fact, there is no formal team or roadmap. 

Moreover, in the complete absence of fundamentals, the only motive driving hundreds of thousands of people to invest in Pepe is speculative in nature. In fact, there are no plans for Pepe at the moment, and the official website itself is rather poor. 

However, it has to be acknowledged that despite the lingering concerns about Pepe, not least the recent criticism from Coinbase, the crypto has provided a real boost to the Memecoin market. 

Specifically, it has caused congestion on both the Ethereum and Bitcoin networks, as well as high transaction fees. In fact, by taking advantage of the new BRC-20 standard, a version of Pepe The Frog has also been created on Bitcoin.

How does the Pepe token work? 

As mentioned above, the Pepe coin is an ERC20 token and is therefore created and issued via smart contracts on Ethereum. For now, it has no use other than to be traded, so even in terms of how it works, it is quite simple. 

In short, the token is the project itself and, as mentioned above, there are no other utilities associated with memecoin for the time being. 

For example, there are no metaverse related projects like there are for other meme tokens, and there are no layer 2s. Basically, there is only a programme, albeit a very vague one, for the growth of the coin. 

We see that the announced tokenomics is also relatively simple. There will actually be 420,690 billion PEPE tokens. Almost all of them have been placed on the LP on Uniswap, except for 6.9% that are in the hands of the central wallet to pay for any listings on exchanges.

Finally, it should be noted that there is no WhitePaper on Pepe. Everything you need to know is in the smart contract and on the official website. Logically, many people have complained about the lack of a whitepaper. 

Although it should be pointed out that very unambitious projects have only provided themselves with whitepapers for prestige and publicity. So this is not really a problem for Pepe.

https://en.cryptonomist.ch/2023/05/13/insight-into-stablecoin-eurs/

As has been known for some time, Stablecoins are becoming increasingly popular in the blockchain sector because, unlike normal cryptocurrencies, their value is pegged 1:1 to that of a given fiat currency.

This feature makes them stable and therefore a viable alternative as a means of payment. It is no coincidence that central banks are also studying the stablecoin phenomenon and expect to increasingly promote their use. 

Specifically, today we will compare two major stablecoins, EURS and USDC, and try to understand their main characteristics, their main strengths and their limitations, if any. 

EURS: Europe’s Leading Euro-Backed Stablecoin

EURS is the largest euro-backed digital asset, launched by STASIS in 2018. EURS combines the benefits of the euro fiat, the second most traded currency in the world, with the transparency, immutability and efficiency of the blockchain.

In fact, the stablecoin is supported by an ecosystem of liquidity providers, custodians, exchanges and payment platforms. Specifically, EURS is an ERC/EIP20 token and the first stablecoin to introduce delegated payments on the Ethereum network.

Thanks to these features, with EURS, users no longer have to pay GAS fees to transfer money, and instead can pay transaction fees in EURS or any other digital asset supported by the STASIS wallet, which is a huge improvement in the user experience. 

In addition, STASIS enjoys the status of a trusted stablecoin provider because it has developed a proven process for interacting with traditional financial systems.

Ease of use, lack of volatility, multichain support and maximum financial transparency have over the years helped to consolidate user trust in EURS, which is currently active on the five most popular blockchains and more, with more planned for 2023.

In addition, STASIS has undergone rigorous regulatory and AML audits, including financial audits by BDO and AML audits by Grant Thornton. 

Specifically, STASIS EURS has processed over €5.5 billion and no bank has ever refused to do business with the company. 

Furthermore, EURS’ compatibility with the traditional financial system allows professional investors to access the cryptocurrency market in a similar way to how they operate in traditional financial systems. 

To this end, STASIS is working with SCB.io, the Swiss company that provides on/off ramp services. 

In addition, the company maintains direct economic relations with central banks, which means that STASIS’ financial reserves enjoy the highest security and best market conditions, as the exposure to commercial and/or default risks is zero.

In other words, the EUROS token is specifically designed to bridge the gap between the traditional and digital economies by combining the advantages of blockchain technology with the stability of the euro.

The innovation potential of this token is therefore enormous, as it already offers a ‘mass’ approach to the crypto world, making it easier to use and understand. 

Comparison with USDC

USDC is a stablecoin, in this case pegged to the US dollar.

Therefore, following the same principle as EURS, USDC also maintains a stable value when the value of other cryptocurrencies fluctuates.

Furthermore, USDC initially operated exclusively on the Ethereum (ETH) blockchain, while it currently also operates on other blockchains, including Solana, Avalanche, Algorand, Cosmos and others. 

Just as it works with the euro for EURS, USDC allows users to tokenise the dollar, making it usable in transactions on blockchain, cryptocurrency exchanges and other platforms. 

In addition, USDC tokens can be easily exchanged for fiat currency and have been developed by Circle and Centre. 

However, although USDC has rarely sinned in its history when it comes to security, it recently had more than one problem following the closure of Silicon Valley Bank after its bankruptcy. 

At that point, in March to be precise, the issuer of the Circle stablecoin itself declared that it had $3.3 billion stuck with the commercial bank SVB. 

Given that USDC’s total market capitalization was around $43.5 billion, this meant that more than 7.5% of USDC’s reserves were no longer available.

Although the situation has since been resolved, it is inevitable that this statement at the time alarmed more than a few savvy investors, who may have turned their backs on USDC in favour of other stablecoins. 

This particular incident with USDC may give a better understanding of why STASIS built a stablecoin infrastructure with central bank accounts, such as ERS, rather than leveraged commercial banks. 

These, as we have unfortunately seen with USDC, can be depleted within a day by a ‘violent’ bank run in such a technological world.