Coin360 Daily Dispatch | Crypto Market Updates & Highlights | August 19, 2023

Crypto Market Update

Written by Van

Table of Contents

Regulatory and Legal Updates

• SEC Clarifies Stance on Ripple and Digital Assets
• Terra Community Rejects LUNC DAO; Market Prices Drop

Cryptocurrency Movements and Market Trends

• Major Dogecoin Transfer Sparks Price Speculation
• Sui's Layer 1 Blockchain Token Plummets After Launch
• Bitcoin's Sharp Drop Linked to Derivatives Market
• Litecoin Struggles Amid Crypto Market Downturn
• THORChain's RUNE Surges Amid Bear Market

Exchange and Protocol Developments

• Venus Takes Control of Troubled Binance Coin Position
• DeFi Protocol Exactly Hacked; $7.2 Million Lost
• Offchain Labs Addresses Arbitrum Network Confusion
• Spark Protocol Hits DAI Debt Limit; Faces Competition
• Cardano's Hydra Receives Significant Update

Technology and Innovations

• Ethereum Launches Holesky Testnet; Replaces Goerli
• Mastercard Partners for CBDC Exploration

Community and Social Media

• Elon Musk's Block Removal Plan Causes Concern
• Crypto Whales Capitalize on Ethereum Market Decline

NFT News

• OpenSea Faces Backlash Over Creator Royalty Changes
• Bitcoin Ordinals NFT Volume Crashes 98%

SEC Clarifies Stance on Ripple and Digital Assets

The SEC has affirmed that digital assets, including XRP, are not inherently securities in its motion to appeal the Ripple victory ruling. The agency's acknowledgment has been met with enthusiasm from the crypto community.

The SEC has also filed a request for an interlocutory appeal following a decision by Judge Analisa Torres. Ripple must respond by September 1. 

Terra Community Rejects LUNC DAO; Market Prices Drop

The Terra community has rejected a proposal giving control to LUNC DAO, resulting in the delisting of LUNC and USTC by FireBlocks. As seen in the cryptocurrency charts, LUNC has lost 30% of its value in the past month, and the Terra Classic network has been plagued by internal conflicts.

Additionally, wallets draining LUNC's liquidity have made over $1 million in profits. The market price of both LUNC and USTC has dropped. 

Major Dogecoin Transfer Sparks Price Speculation

Reflecting the dynamics of crypto coin prices, a significant amount of Dogecoin (DOGE) worth over $16 million was transferred from Robinhood to an unknown wallet. The news has received positive feedback, suggesting the price of DOGE may rise.

DOGE's price has increased by more than 2% in the past 24 hours but its trading volume has decreased by nearly 50%. Despite the recent increase, DOGE is still down more than 16% for the week. 

Sui's Layer 1 Blockchain Token Plummets After Launch

The native token of Sui's Layer 1 blockchain has dropped 66% since its mainnet launch in May. The decline may be due to users selling off "Community Reserve" tokens received from Sui's supply. The market cap has fallen from $740 million to $343 million.

The project's founders and early investors could still make significant profits even if the token loses most of its initial market cap. Mysten Labs, the creator of Sui, previously raised $300 million at a valuation exceeding $2 billion.

Bitcoin's Sharp Drop Linked to Derivatives Market

Bitcoin experienced a sharp drop after an important support level was broken, triggering a liquidation wave in the derivatives market. QCP Capital believes that the derivatives market is in bear expansion mode, implying further declines for Bitcoin.

The firm also suggests that the direction of Bitcoin's movement now depends on Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell's upcoming speech and the outcome of the SEC and Grayscale case.

Litecoin Struggles Amid Crypto Market Downturn

In the realm of crypto price movements, Litecoin's price has dropped by 1.36% in the last 24 hours, contributing to a week-long slump of 23.2%. The altcoin's struggles reflect the downward trend of the cryptocurrency market, particularly Bitcoin. Litecoin's price is closely tied to Bitcoin's movements, highlighting the interdependence of these digital assets. Analysts are closely monitoring key support and resistance levels as Litecoin tries to navigate the challenging market.

THORChain's RUNE Surges Amid Bear Market

THORChain's governance token, RUNE, has surged over 40% in a bear market, reaching a four-month high of $1.64. The cross-chain liquidity protocol also achieved a record volume day of over $100 million in trades, with wealthy investors using the platform for large swaps.

THORChain's streaming swaps product, launched on August 1, has attracted significant volume and is seen as a replacement for centralized exchanges like Coinbase and Binance. The protocol plans to introduce collateralized lending and expand its product offerings in the future.

Venus Takes Control of Troubled Binance Coin Position

Decentralized lending protocol Venus, based on the Binance Smart Chain, has taken measures to "make healthy" a notorious $250m lending position following a liquidation of $33m worth of Binance Coin (BNB).

The position was created in October 2022 by an attacker who stole 2 million BNB and deposited it as collateral, securing a $150m stablecoin loan. The BNB core team has become the sole liquidator responsible for the position to prevent systemic risk and damage to Venus and BNB. Other lending markets, such as Curve Finance, have also faced stress recently.

DeFi Protocol Exactly Hacked; $7.2 Million Lost

Exactly, a decentralized finance (DeFi) protocol on the Optimism network, has been hacked. Hackers exploited a vulnerability in the smart contracts and made away with $7.2 million worth of Ethereum. Bridges in the DeFi space are particularly vulnerable to hacks. Last year saw a surge in hacking attacks in the crypto space, especially in the DeFi world.

Offchain Labs Addresses Arbitrum Network Confusion

Offchain Labs, the team behind the Arbitrum Layer 2 project, has clarified that the network was not down for an hour, but instead experienced transaction processing issues due to a problem with the batch poster.

The batch poster hit an edge case in geth's mempool implementation which caused it to reject transactions. Many users had mistakenly believed that Arbitrum was down during this time.

Spark Protocol Hits DAI Debt Limit; Faces Competition

Spark Protocol, MakerDAO's money market, has reached its DAI debt limit of $200 million just eight days after raising it, with its utilization currently at 99%. This comes as competition heats up among decentralized stablecoins, with Maker hoping to protect DAI's market share.

Other stablecoins, such as crvUSD from Curve Finance and GHO from Aave, are also gaining traction but facing their own challenges.

Cardano's Hydra Receives Significant Update

Cardano's layer 2 scaling solution, Hydra, has received a major update with the release of version 0.12.0. The update includes new API endpoints, improved performance, and enhanced security.

Cardano founder Charles Hoskinson has reaffirmed the project's commitment to scaling with Hydra and Mithril, while also noting that rival Ethereum is being surpassed by its own layer 2 solutions. The details of the update will be demonstrated at the Rare Evo 2023 cryptocurrency convention.

Ethereum Launches Holesky Testnet; Replaces Goerli

With the upcoming launch of a new testnet called Holesky, Ethereum continues to make strides in development, reflecting positively on the Ethereum market cap. It will replace the current testnet, Goerli, and will have over 1 billion testnet ETH available for developers. Holesky will be used for staking, infrastructure, and protocol development, while Sepolia will remain the testnet for DApps and smart contracts. The name Holesky comes from a train station in Prague, continuing the tradition of naming testnets after train stations.

Mastercard Partners for CBDC Exploration

Mastercard has partnered with seven blockchain and payment technology firms to explore central bank digital currency (CBDC) adoption. The initiative aims to understand the advantages and limitations of CBDCs and develop user-friendly solutions. Key themes include security, privacy, interoperability, and the role of the private sector in innovation.

Leading participants include Ripple, ConsenSys, and Giesecke+Devrient. The partnership takes place against a backdrop of growing interest from central banks in CBDCs, with 93% currently investigating their potential.

Elon Musk's Block Removal Plan Causes Concern

Elon Musk plans to remove the block feature on X/Twitter, encouraging users to utilize the mute function instead. Users have expressed concerns about potential harassment, while the crypto community is wary of increased scam accounts, spam, and bots.  

Crypto Whales Capitalize on Ethereum Market Decline

During a recent market decline, whales in the cryptocurrency market sold off their Ethereum holdings before the drop, avoiding significant losses. One whale sold 22,341 ETH worth $41 million, while another cryptocurrency trading company, Cumberland, sold 8,000 ETH worth $14.4 million.

However, Cumberland took advantage of the decline by purchasing 4,000 ETH worth $6.72 million at a lower price. 

Top Altcoin Gainers and Losers

Gainers:

THORChain RUNE (+14.28%)

Hedera Hashgraph HBAR (+14.24%)

FTX Token FTT (+8.98%)

Losers:

XDC Network XDC (-4.45%)

FLEX FLEX (-3.24%)

Rocket Pool RPL (-2.99%)

NFT Market Map

OpenSea Faces Backlash Over Creator Royalty Changes

Major players, including Mark Cuban and Yuga Labs, have criticized NFT trading platform OpenSea for its decision to stop enforcing creator royalties. Cuban, an OpenSea investor, called the move a "huge mistake" that damages trust in the platform and hurts the industry.

Other creators have condemned the decision and plan to boycott OpenSea, while smaller marketplaces reaffirmed their commitment to creator royalties. There are concerns that OpenSea's decision could lead to the end of the practice industry-wide.

The NFT marketplace OpenSea has ended support for BNB Smart Chain, citing the need to align resources with more promising efforts. Users will no longer be able to create new listings or make new offers on BSC NFTs, but can still view, discover, and transfer them. OpenSea now supports 10 blockchains in total.

Bitcoin Ordinals NFT Volume Crashes 98%

Bitcoin Ordinals NFT trading volume has plummeted by 98% since May, with sales declining from $452 million to $3 million. The number of transactions also dropped by 97% to 20,571. This decline raises concerns about the longevity and relevance of Bitcoin-based NFTs in the market. The Bitcoin community's divided outlook on incorporating NFTs on the network adds uncertainty to Ordinals' sustainability in the evolving NFT landscape.  

This article has been refined and enhanced by ChatGPT.