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

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Jun 19 2023

last year3 minutes read

Markets360

Crypto Market Update

Written by Van

Terraform Labs CEO Jailed Over Document Forgery Allegations
Crypto.com's Trading Practices Under Scrutiny
JPMorgan Report Sheds Light on SEC's Stance on Ethereum
UK Parliament Passes Bill Regulating Cryptocurrencies
Coinbase Criticizes SEC Over Delays in Ongoing Legal Battle
Binance UK Subsidiary Withdraws from FCA Registration

Crypto Exchange News and Developments

Australian Crypto Exchange Independent Reserve Eyes Asian Expansion
Massive Shiba Inu Coin Transfers to Exchanges
BNB Chain Launches EVM-Compatible opBNB Testnet

Industry Trends and Analysis

Fidelity Rumored to Boost Bitcoin with ETF Application
Altcoin Investment Products See Continued Outflows, CoinShares Reports
Small Bitcoin Holders Accumulate Amidst Whale Decline
USDC Tops Liquidity Among Stablecoins, Kaiko Reports
Matter Labs' zkSync Rollup's TVL Surpasses $500 Million
Flare Networks' Bullish Trend Continues Amidst Decentralization Efforts

Project-Specific Updates

Mastercard Files Trademark for Crypto and Blockchain Tools
Developers Consider Raising Ethereum Validator Limit
Ethscriptions Takes Ethereum Blockchain to Non-Financial Applications
Aave Community Rejects Proposal to Freeze Curve DAO Tokens
Quant Price Dips Despite CBDC Collaboration News
Frax Plans Token Buybacks to Bolster Price
Musk's Account Suspension Tanks Bob Token Price
Nike and Fortnite Tease Possible NFT Collaboration

Security and Tech Developments

CertiK Awarded $500,000 Bounty for Discovering Blockchain Vulnerability

Terraform Labs CEO Jailed Over Document Forgery Allegations

Terraform Labs CEO Kwon Do-hyeong has been sentenced to four months in jail by a Montenegro district court for forging travel documents. Kwon's bail was reportedly overruled by a higher court, extending his detention while his extradition to South Korea or the U.S. is considered.

Kwon was arrested in March for allegedly attempting to leave the country with fake passports. His company's cryptocurrency project, Terra-Luna, collapsed in May 2022. Kwon denies the allegations and claims there was no intent to deceive investors.

Crypto.com's Trading Practices Under Scrutiny

Crypto.com's internal trading team and market maker functions have been criticized for potential conflicts of interest. The exchange defends its position, stating that in-house market making is a common practice and that its traders hedge their positions on different platforms to remain risk-neutral. The firm is set to close its institutional exchange in the US due to regulatory issues.

JPMorgan Report Sheds Light on SEC's Stance on Ethereum

JPMorgan's research report suggests that the SEC's admission of a regulatory gap for tokens on a decentralized network may explain why Ethereum has not faced action. The release of documents in the SEC vs. Ripple lawsuit could impact congressional efforts to regulate the crypto industry. However, critics argue that the report fails to address the context of the drafts and Hinman's lack of legal authority to create new rules.

UK Parliament Passes Bill Regulating Cryptocurrencies

The U.K. Parliament has passed the Financial Services and Markets Bill, which could lead to the regulation of cryptocurrencies in the country. The bill, initially focused on regulating stablecoins, was later expanded to cover all crypto and include measures for supervising crypto promotions. The aim is to give regulators the power to establish crypto rules, with specific regulations for the sector expected within a year. The bill will now go through further stages of approval before becoming law.

Coinbase Criticizes SEC Over Delays in Ongoing Legal Battle

Coinbase has criticized the SEC for failing to respond to its questions in the ongoing legal battle, accusing the regulator of avoiding Coinbase's rulemaking petition. Coinbase claims the SEC's silence and delays are damaging the crypto industry. The company's chief legal officer hopes for a court order compelling the SEC to fulfill its duties. The SEC sued Coinbase earlier, alleging securities rule violations.

Binance UK Subsidiary Withdraws from FCA Registration

Binance's UK subsidiary, BML, has canceled its registration with the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) and is no longer authorized in the UK. This has no impact on Binance.com, which does not operate in the UK. Binance has also exited two other European countries, Netherlands and Cyprus, and is focusing on its larger markets in France and other countries. Meanwhile, the Nigerian SEC declared Binance Nigeria Limited illegal, but Binance claims it was unaware of the entity and has sent a cease-and-desist order.

Australian Crypto Exchange Independent Reserve Eyes Asian Expansion

Australian cryptocurrency exchange Independent Reserve plans to open an office in Hong Kong and expand into other Southeast Asian jurisdictions. The exchange's Singapore CEO, Lasanka Perera, highlighted that Singapore's restrictions on public advertising by crypto exchanges led to a 90% drop in monthly retail customer acquisition.

Independent Reserve aims to focus on institutional customers and introduce more products and services for them. The company hopes to double its daily trade volumes and expand its user base by 50% in Singapore by the end of the year.

Massive Shiba Inu Coin Transfers to Exchanges

Gigantic amounts of Shiba Inu coins were transferred to Coinbase and Binance. A total of 27.6 billion Shiba Inu coins were moved in five transactions, with 17 billion sent to Binance and Coinbase. In addition, a significant amount of Shiba Inu coins were bought, but the price increase has since been reversed. The burn rate of SHIB has increased by over 1,000% in the past 24 hours, with a goal of reducing the circulating supply to create scarcity and potentially drive up the price.

BNB Chain Launches EVM-Compatible opBNB Testnet

BNB Chain has released the opBNB testnet, an Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM)-compatible blockchain based on Optimism's OP Stack. It aims to achieve speeds of 4,000 transactions per second (tps) at a cost of 0.005 U.S. cents per transaction, similar to Arbitrum. The platform offers improved scalability, lower transaction costs, and a superior user experience for developers and projects migrating to BSC. Development on the opBNB testnet is now open.

Fidelity Rumored to Boost Bitcoin with ETF Application

BlackRock's application for a Bitcoin spot ETF is generating positive momentum, with experts predicting approval due to the firm's political connections and success rate. Fidelity is rumored to follow suit and apply for a Bitcoin ETF or bid for Grayscale. BlackRock and Fidelity's entry into the market is seen as positive for Bitcoin, potentially driving prices and providing legitimacy to the industry.

Altcoin Investment Products See Continued Outflows, CoinShares Reports

According to a report by CoinShares, digital asset investment products experienced their ninth consecutive week of outflows, reaching a total of $423 million. Last week, there were outflows of $5.1 million, but minor inflows were observed towards the end of the week following news of BlackRock's bitcoin spot ETF application. Altcoin prices have been impacted by the SEC's classification of certain altcoins as securities in lawsuits against Binance and Coinbase. However, investors added positions in altcoins, with inflows of $2.4 million, including $1 million for XRP and $600,000 for Cardano's ADA. Ether saw outflows of $5 million.

Small Bitcoin Holders Accumulate Amidst Whale Decline

Bitcoin wallets with under 100 BTC purchased 2.54x daily mined supply over month, with shrimps (less than 1 BTC) and crabs (less than 10 BTC) increasing their total holdings by 117% and 80% respectively. Shrimps now hold 6.6% of total circulating supply, up from 4.86% a year ago, while whales hold 34.4%, down from 62.7% in 2012.

USDC Tops Liquidity Among Stablecoins, Kaiko Reports

According to Kaiko analysis, USDC is the most liquid stablecoin on centralized exchanges with $38 million bids, dethroning USDT. The market capitalization of the six largest stablecoins has increased by over $1 billion, marking the biggest climb in three months. The spike comes after a gradual decline and could indicate increased crypto buying power. The leading stablecoin, USDT, recently deviated from its $1 parity but returned to $1 shortly after. True USD experienced a surge in market capitalization, and there have been changes in the positions of other stablecoins like DAI and BUSD.

Matter Labs' zkSync Rollup's TVL Surpasses $500 Million

Matter Labs' zkSync Era, a zero-knowledge (ZK) rollup for scaling Ethereum, has seen a significant increase in total value locked (TVL), surpassing $500 million. It is the third-largest rollup by TVL after Arbitrum and Optimism. The daily active addresses have been steadily increasing, and the platform has attracted projects like Rocketpool. The demand for rollups is driven by Ethereum developers' focus on implementing EIP 4844, which will reduce transaction fees and improve scalability.

Flare Networks' Bullish Trend Continues Amidst Decentralization Efforts

Flare Networks (FLR) is currently experiencing one of its most bullish growth trends this month, with a 9.15% price surge in the past 24 hours. The protocol is designed to make blockchain more useful by providing developers access to data from other chains and the internet. To further support decentralization, Flare recently revealed plans to launch a secondary reward band for the FTSO on Flare, which will help data providers cover infrastructure costs. The protocol is introducing many value propositions, such as oracles, to its users and token holders.

Mastercard Files Trademark for Crypto and Blockchain Tools

Mastercard has filed a trademark application for cryptocurrency and blockchain tools, signaling its commitment to digital currencies. The application suggests plans for software development and interconnecting virtual asset service providers for streamlined crypto transactions. This is another step in Mastercard's growing involvement in the crypto sector, including partnerships and acquisitions in the space.

Developers Consider Raising Ethereum Validator Limit

Developers are proposing to raise the Ethereum validator limit from 32 ETH to 2,048 ETH, a significant increase of 6,300%. This has prompted entities like Lido and staking services offered by crypto exchanges to set up multiple validator nodes. The current waiting time for running a validator node on Ethereum has increased to 44 days, indicating high demand for earning passive income on holdings. The proposal is still under debate and not actively being worked on

Ethscriptions Takes Ethereum Blockchain to Non-Financial Applications

Ethscriptions is a new protocol on Ethereum that allows users to create and share digital objects. It enables non-financial data to be written into the Ethereum blockchain and gained significant interest upon its launch, with nearly 30,000 Ethscriptions created in less than 18 hours. The protocol leverages Ethereum "calldata" and is cheaper and more decentralized than contract storage.

Aave Community Rejects Proposal to Freeze Curve DAO Tokens

The Aave community has rejected Gauntlet's proposal to freeze Curve DAO (CRV) tokens on Aave v2 to address the risk associated with a large loan taken by Curve founder Michael Egorov. Gauntlet suggested that the freeze could incentivize Egorov to decrease his borrowing or diversify collateral. However, the community unanimously voted against the proposal. Egorov's loan account currently poses no immediate bad debt risk to Aave.

Quant Price Dips Despite CBDC Collaboration News

The price of Quant (QNT) initially surged to around $116 after news of its collaboration with the Bank for International Settlements (BIS) and Bank of England on a UK central bank digital currency (CBDC). However, selling pressure caused the price to drop to around $100. The project tested the use of APIs for CBDC systems, demonstrating potential benefits and innovative use cases.

Frax Plans Token Buybacks to Bolster Price

Frax founder Sam Kazemian supports a proposal for an optimized token buyback strategy. Frax will purchase and burn its native token, Frax Share (FXS), as its price drops below certain thresholds. The proposal suggests initiating buybacks when FXS price falls below $5 and increasing buybacks as the price continues to drop.

Musk's Account Suspension Tanks Bob Token Price

Elon Musk suspended a Twitter bot account associated with the Bob Token (BOB) meme coin, causing a 30% decline in its value. The bot, named Bob, had gained popularity for providing witty explanations of tweets. However, BOB lacks a strong use case, leading to scam accusations. Musk had previously engaged with the account but later questioned its legitimacy. Some in the crypto community are defending the meme coin with the hashtag "FREEBOB."

Nike and Fortnite Tease Possible NFT Collaboration

Nike is teasing a collaboration with Fortnite that may involve its .Swoosh NFT platform and Air Max shoe brand. The partnership could signify a shift toward mainstream gaming giants embracing NFTs and Web3 features. Fortnite's support for Nike's NFT platform could introduce a significant change for the popular game. Further details have yet to be revealed.

CertiK Awarded $500,000 Bounty for Discovering Blockchain Vulnerability

Blockchain security firm CertiK received a $500,000 bounty from Sui Network after the security firm discovered vulnerabilities in Sui's layer-1 blockchain. A vulnerability, called HamsterWheel, was discovered which allowed nodes to perform operations without processing new transactions, affecting network operations. Sui implemented fixes to prevent further damage and CertiK was deemed worthy of the bounty, rewarding their proactive security efforts.

Top Altcoin Gainers and Losers

Gainers:

Trust Wallet Token TWT (+4.88%)

Maker MKR (+3.10%)

Stacks STX (+1.61%)

Losers:

KuCoin Token KCS (-12.97%)

Kaspa KAS (-7.17%)

XDC Network XDC (-7.00%)

NFT Market Map

CryptoPunk #8611, an expensive Ethereum NFT, has been burned and permanently removed from circulation. The burn corresponds to an inscription on a Bitcoin-like asset, symbolically shifting ownership from Ethereum to Bitcoin. The move was driven by the community and marks a growing trend called teleburning. This follows a similar incident in which an NFT from the Bored Ape Yacht Club collection was burned. The goal is to create a series of Ordinals inscriptions representing ownership in CryptoPunk #8611. The burnt NFT will be sent to Satoshi Nakamoto's wallet, the creator of Bitcoin.

Optimism is surpassing Polygon and Arbitrum in the NFT sector, with a surge in mints of music NFTs and consistent growth in active addresses. This growth has translated into a 29% surge in revenue over the past month, while Polygon and Arbitrum have seen declines. Optimism has the potential to emerge as a strong competitor in the L2 sector.

This article has been refined and enhanced by ChatGPT.