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

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May 19 2023

2 years ago3 minutes read

Markets360

Crypto Market Update

Written by Van

Coinbase Expands Coinbase One Trading Platform to Multiple Countries
Binance Australia's Third-Party Provider Cites "Scams and Fraud"
BitDAO Merges with Mantle to Form DAO-led Web3 Ecosystem
Swaprum Decentralized Exchange Drains $3 Million in Exit Scam
Litecoin Price Surges to One-Month High, Outperforms Bitcoin
Binance Coin Price Drops, Whales Begin Selling
Bitcoin-based NFTs Gain Popularity, Threaten Ethereum's Dominance
Curve Introduces crvUSD Stablecoin to Compete in DeFi Space
BOB Token Surges 40% Following Attention from Elon Musk

Security and Technology

Ledger Clarifies User Consent for Private Key Access

New York Attorney General Recovers $4.3 Million in Crypto Fraud Case

New York Attorney General Letitia James has secured $4.3 million in restitution from crypto trading platform Coin Cafe for defrauding over 340 investors. The platform allegedly charged exorbitant and undisclosed fees for its wallet service, wiping out investors' accounts. Coin Cafe agreed to pay restitution to investors who were charged without prior knowledge of the system. The platform increased its fee structure four times since September 2020, without clearly notifying its user base. One investigator from the Attorney General's office was also caught in the scheme, despite the platform receiving a BitLicense.

Federal Reserve Chairman Stresses Negotiation and Economic Projections

Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell emphasizes the importance of negotiation, expresses concerns about restrictive policy, and affirms the usefulness of economic projections. He also notes the significance of the disparity between the market rate path and the Fed's forecast and highlights the complementary role of monetary policy and financial oversight tools. These insights offer valuable perspectives for investors and market participants.

Revolut Faces Rejection of Banking License Application by Bank of England

Revolut faces rejection of its banking license application by the Bank of England due to internal IT system deficiencies. The UK regulator has instructed Revolut to simplify its share structure and produce audited accounts before the license could be granted. The denial of the license is expected to affect only its offerings of mortgages and loans to UK customers. BDO, the accounting firm, was unable to fully verify over two-thirds of Revolut’s total revenues of £636 million ($789 million) due to internal system deficiencies.

Turkey Leads in Cryptocurrency Ownership Amidst Inflation Rates

Turkey saw the biggest increase in cryptocurrency ownership, with a 27.1% rise from July-September 2021 to July-September 2022 due to soaring inflation rates. Argentina and the Philippines followed, with increases of 23.5% and 23.4% in crypto ownership rates. The devaluation of the Turkish Lira and lack of regulatory framework in Turkey led to a rise in cryptocurrency adoption, with over 2.4 million Turks owning Bitcoin. Despite the lack of regulation, significant trading volumes are seen on major Turkish cryptocurrency exchanges.

HashKey Group in Talks to Raise Funding at Over $1 Billion Valuation

Hong Kong-based digital asset firm HashKey Group is in talks to raise $100 million to $200 million from potential investors at a valuation of over $1 billion. The company has several financial branches, including HashKey Capital and HashKey Custody. The new offering comes after HashKey was granted a Type 9 asset management license by Hong Kong’s Securities and Futures Commission.

Coinbase Expands Coinbase One Trading Platform to Multiple Countries

Coinbase has extended its Coinbase One trading platform to the UK, US, Germany, and Ireland. The subscription zero tax form 8949, and partner deals other benefits. Coinbase plans to roll out the service in 31 other European countries soon. The exchange's subscription and services revenue increased 138% to $361.7 million in Q1 2023, compared to $152 million in 2022.

Binance Australia's Third-Party Provider Cites "Scams and Fraud"

Cuscal, the third-party payments provider for Binance Australia, cited the impact of "scams and fraud" related to "account fraud, ID takeover and crypto activity" after being questioned why it offboarded the exchange. Binance Australia suspended Australian dollar fiat services on May 18 after a decision from Cuscal.

BitDAO Merges with Mantle to Form DAO-led Web3 Ecosystem

BitDAO has merged with Mantle to form a DAO-led web3 ecosystem called the Mantle Ecosystem, with BitDAO's ecosystem, products, governance and BIT tokenomics combined under the Mantle brand. The BitDAO community voted in favour of the merger, with BIT tokens eventually being converted to Mantle (MNT), and the aim of simplifying branding and structural components to pursue long-term success.

The Mantle Ecosystem receives almost $300 million in USDC/USDT and approximately 270,000 ETH from BitDAO's substantial treasury, with governance of treasury use and allocation controlled by token holders through Mantle Governance.

Swaprum Decentralized Exchange Drains $3 Million in Exit Scam

Decentralized exchange Swaprum drained $3 million in ETH tokens from its protocol in an exit scam. The exchange was launched on Ethereum layer 2 network Arbitrum and offered high farming rewards and low swapping fees. Blockchain security firm Peckshield flagged the incident, which occurred on Thursday, with the exchange's social media accounts subsequently deleted. SAPR, the platform's native token, lost almost all of its value, plunging 99%.

Litecoin Price Surges to One-Month High, Outperforms Bitcoin

Litecoin's price has risen over 15% to a one-month high of $95, outperforming most major cryptocurrencies including Bitcoin. The dollar value of open futures contracts tied to Litecoin has also reached its highest level since December. The congestion on the Bitcoin network may be benefiting Litecoin, whose creator Charlie Lee has highlighted its potential growth during the August halving event. Historical data suggests that the price of Litecoin could surge post-halving, although this is not certain.

Binance Coin Price Drops, Whales Begin Selling

Binance Coin (BNB) price has dropped below $310, with losses of 9% month-to-date, and on-chain data suggests negative price predictions as crypto whales begin to sell. Binance’s spot trading has declined for the second consecutive month, and the BNB daily Active Addresses (7D) have declined persistently. Large institutional investors across the BNB network are taking bearish positions, and the bears might force a BNB price pullback toward $300 in the coming days.

Bitcoin-based NFTs Gain Popularity, Threaten Ethereum's Dominance

Bitcoin-based NFTs are rapidly gaining popularity, with trading volume exceeding $2.27 million in the last 24 hours. This trend threaten the dominance of Ethereum-based NFTs, such as BAYC and MAYC, whose floor prices have already begun declining. As a result, NFT trades on the Ethereum network have fallen significantly, and gas usage has decreased. However, staking remains popular, with over 2.2 million ETH deposited into the ETH2 deposit contract in May.

Curve Introduces crvUSD Stablecoin to Compete in DeFi Space

Curve faces tough competition from Uniswap and SushiSwap in DeFi space. However, its new stablecoin crvUSD could help the protocol compete. Despite being a crowded market, the introduction of crvUSD could aid the protocol in areas such as TVL and treasury holdings. The total value locked on the protocol was $4.2 billion, declining by 6.3% over the last month, and earnings generated by the protocol declined by 20.6%. The impact of crvUSD on CRV token remains to be seen.

BOB Token Surges 40% Following Attention from Elon Musk

BOB token surged more than 40% in two hours, possibly due to attention from Elon Musk after a Twitter bot that explains tweets using artificial intelligence tagged him in a post. BOB is marketed by ExplainThisBob, a Twitter bot that has gained popularity for its unique responses. The token was also listed on major exchange KuCoin, but the price increase began before the announcement.

Ledger Clarifies User Consent for Private Key Access

Crypto hardware wallet provider Ledger clarified that its operating system requires user consent before private keys are touched. The firm's CTO, Charles Guillemet, said the OS shouldn't be able to copy device private keys without consent, but said that using a Ledger requires a "minimal amount of trust". The comments came after a deleted tweet had stated it was possible for Ledger to write firmware that could extract users' private keys.

Top Altcoin Gainers and Losers

Gainers:

Injective INJ (+9.51%)

Kava KAVA (+6.15%)

Bitget Token BGB (+3.29%)

Losers:

eCash XEC (-10.38%)

Optimism OP (-7.42%)

Pepe PEPE (-3.98%)

NFT Market Map

ParaSpace NFT co-founder, Jay Yao, has resigned following a feud with CEO Yubo Ruan. The controversy has frustrated ParaSpace community members over the cost of gas fees. Ruan gains control of their Twitter handle and multi-sig wallet, while Yao and Thomas Schmidt will receive co-founder recognition even after they depart. The community claimed Yao and Schmidt held them hostage for the co-founder title, causing users to withdraw their assets and pay hefty gas fees.