Coin360 Daily Dispatch (Apr 18, 2023): Crypto Market Updates & Highlights
Apr 18 2023
Crypto Market Update: SEC Chairman Gensler Accused of Hypocrisy in Cryptocurrency Regulations
Written by Van - Perfected by ChatGPT
SEC Chairman Gary Gensler accused crypto firms of noncompliance with securities rules and stated that most cryptocurrencies are securities. The SEC is taking measures to bring the crypto industry into compliance but has faced criticism from crypto stakeholders. Sarcastically, a video of Gensler praising Algorand, now declared an unregistered security, has resurfaced and led to accusations of hypocrisy towards Gensler. He will be questioned about his comments during his upcoming testimony before the U.S. House Committee on Financial Services.
MicroStrategy Chairman Introduces Bitcoin Lightning Network Integration for Email Addresses
MicroStrategy’s chairman, Michael Saylor, has revealed that the company has integrated the Bitcoin Lightning Network feature into its email addresses. This allows people to send BTC to Saylor using his email address as an identifier. The integration uses the Lightning Address protocol, which can replace standard Lightning payment requests with internet identifiers. MicroStrategy has spent $4.17 billion to accumulate 140,000 BTC since adopting the BTC standard in March 2021. Several traditional financial institutions have bought MicroStrategy stocks to gain indirect exposure to Bitcoin.
Bank of England Considers Limitations on Stablecoins
The Bank of England is considering limitations on stablecoins for payments due to potential risks associated with rapid innovation in the payments space. The Deputy Governor emphasized the importance of stablecoins being backed by high-quality and liquid assets for investor protection. The UK’s parliament is discussing the Financial Services and Markets Bill, which would allow banks to regulate operators of systemic stablecoins, while the Bank of England and Financial Conduct Authority are set to explore new rules for stablecoins later this year. Andrew Griffith, financial secretary to the UK Treasury, said that the UK crypto industry should prepare for specific regulations that could be implemented within the year. The proposals require crypto firms registered with the Financial Conduct Authority to apply for authorization under the new Financial Services and Markets Act-based regime.
New York Requires Crypto Firms with BitLicense to Pay Assessment Fees
The New York State Department of Financial Services has passed a law requiring companies holding a BitLicense to pay assessment fees similar to insurance and banking firms. The fees will fund the agency’s operations and allow for the hiring of more staff. Crypto firms will be billed quarterly based on the Virtual Currency Unit’s estimated annual budget, and will be required to meet strict standards for capitalization, cybersecurity protection, and anti-money laundering protocols. Assessment fees will depend on a firm’s size and complexity. The NYDFS has increased its digital asset unit staffing over the past year and released new guidance earlier this year that mandates separating a company’s crypto assets from those of customers.
Babel Finance Extends Creditor Protection to Focus on DeFi, Luno Exits Singapore Amid Regulatory Framework Changes
Babel Finance, a cryptocurrency lender, has secured a three-month extension for its creditor protection period to propose a restructuring and build a decentralized finance (DeFi) project. Babel Finance intends to use the revenue from the DeFi project to pay off its debts, which amount to over $800 million. Meanwhile, rival cryptocurrency exchange Luno is winding up its operations in Singapore, saying it is part of a regular evaluation of global strategy and presence. Singapore is working on setting up a specific framework to help banks screen crypto-related businesses, while Hong Kong is also giving a tough fight to become Asia’s crypto capital.
Bitcoin Price Resumes Rally Above $30,000 With Majority of BTC Supply in Profit
Bitcoin’s rally above \(30,000 has resumed after it dropped to a daily low of \)29,249, now trading at around \(30,200. The surge in price was largely untested and the price may consolidate before another leg up. Traders have liquidated over \)32 million worth of BTC long positions since Sunday evening, and a mix of factors including the U.S. dollar jump and the first-quarter earnings results might have sent Bitcoin’s price downward. The U.S. Dollar Index and Bitcoin’s price are negatively correlated, but that correlation has decreased since the start of the year.
According to Glassnode’s weekly report, about 77% of the total Bitcoin supply is currently in profit, with 6.2 million BTC coming back into green this year. The percent supply in profit metric, which determines the percentage of Bitcoin supply carrying unrealized profit, has been rising with the start of the rally this year. Historically, bear market bottoms formed after investors capitulated when they incurred deep losses. The rise in profits could suggest that this detox has occurred, and holders may have their cost basis at the lower, bear market prices.
Source: Glassnode
Ethereum’s Ether Token Surges 15% From Local Bottom Against Bitcoin
Altcoins benefit from the sudden Bitcoin turnaround. ETH is up 1.3% on the day and preserved $2,000 as support. After hitting a six-month low versus Bitcoin, Ethereum’s Ether token has entered a sharp price recovery, reaching 0.0709 BTC, up about 15% from its local bottom of 0.0602 BTC six days ago.
Since the Shapella upgrade on April 12, stakers have withdrawn 574,700 ETH worth about $1.21 billion, and Ether’s price has increased by 14.25% in the same period. Weak institutional inflows versus Bitcoin have shown that mainstream investors may have followed the “sell the news” strategy after the Shapella upgrade. However, bullish sentiment among investors can be seen, with ETH’s derivatives market witnessing a surge in trading volume and a multi-year high in futures trading.
Source: Kaiko
Tether’s Market Cap Nears All-Time Highs While Rival Stablecoins Decline
Tether’s market cap has grown by about 20% year-to-date and is approaching new all-time highs, while its rival stablecoins have seen declines in their market capitalization. USD Coin’s exposure to the failed Silicon Valley Bank has contributed to a drop of over 25% in its circulating market capitalization since the start of the year, while Binance USD has witnessed a 60% drop due to regulatory issues. Tether’s dominance in the global stablecoin sector has exceeded 65% for the first time since May 2021. However, Tether supply across crypto exchanges has been declining, potentially due to a trend shift towards risk-on cryptocurrencies.
Dfinity Foundation Introduces Proof of Green (PoG) for Carbon Consumption Reporting
According to the Dfinity Foundation, a single Cardano (ADA) transaction uses 8,598 times more energy than a transaction on the Internet Computer (ICP) blockchain network. The Foundation claims that ICP is one of the most environmentally friendly blockchains and consumes less energy than competing networks like Solana, Avalanche, Algorand, Tezos and Cardano. To help combat “greenwashing” in the blockchain industry, Dfinity has launched a Proof of Green (PoG) initiative in partnership with Carbon Crowd that aims to standardise how blockchain networks report their carbon consumption. The price of ICP soared by 13.17% over the past 24 hours.
Solana Shows Signs of Rapid Growth Amid Sell-Off Due to Grayscale Trust Trading
Solana’s SOL price dropped by over 4% after hitting a two-month high before being back in the green zone with a 1.74% daily increase. It happened as Grayscale Solana Trust began trading on OTC Markets, causing a sell-off as traders “sold the news” of an institutional Solana investment product going public.
Despite this, an anonymous host of InvestAnswers on YouTube notes that Solana is showing signs of rapid growth based on daily active user count and new wallet creation, expecting more users to come to its network. The analyst concludes that the growing user count is a positive sign for Solana’s future growth and a surge in price.
Source: InvestAnswers/ YouTube
Rocket Pool Launches Atlas Update Allowing Instant Access to ETH Staking Rewards
Rocket Pool, a DeFi staking protocol on the Ethereum network, has launched Atlas, an update that allows users to access their ETH staking rewards instantly. Atlas follows the successful rollout of Ethereum’s Shapella upgrade, which allowed ETH stakers to withdraw their crypto for the first time. Rocket Pool now accepts staking amounts as small as 8 ETH, down from 16 ETH, and supports pooling of ETH to boost earnings. Atlas includes automatic rewards distribution, a unified dashboard and support for Ethereum consensus. The launch enables investors with less capital to participate in the staking process to earn rewards that would otherwise have been out of reach. The price of RPL remains bearish with a -2.40% decline in the past 24 hours.
Core DAO Launches $200M Ecosystem Fund with Bitget and MEXC as Partners
Core DAO has announced a $200m Ecosystem Fund to support the development of decentralised applications and protocols that use the Core layer-1 blockchain. The fund is supported by partners including Bitget and MEXC, and will provide financing for early-stage projects to support areas such as research, recruitment, and marketing. Unlike traditional grant-based systems, the Ecosystem Fund will incentivise projects to achieve personalised benchmarks providing tangible value to the Core community. Bitget plans to become one of the validators for the Core network and support Core staking on its exchange, as well as listing Core projects and opening a new Core Trading Zone. CORE has been up by 3.7% since the news.
Vechain Launches VORJ, Boosting VET Price by 2.8%
VET price went up by 2.8% today following Vechain’s announcement of the launch of VORJ, a no-code Web3-as-a-service platform that allows anyone to create, deploy, and interact with smart contracts on the VeChainThor blockchain. Users do not need to understand solidity, and fees on VORJ are taken care of by the platform. VORJ offers secure and industry-standard OpenZeppelin smart contracts and allows the creation of fungible ERC-20 or non-fungible tokens ERC-721 contracts. VORJ also seamlessly integrates with existing VechainThor projects.
Gala Token Price Surges Over 200% Following Announcement of New Version Airdrop
The price of Gala token surged by more than 216% from January levels after the developers announced a 1:1 airdrop of the second version of the token. The new token is expected to be more secure and user-friendly, and will include a burning mechanism to reduce the overall volume of tokens and create more value for holders. Holders of the current GALA token were advised to remove their tokens from liquidity pools or smart contracts before May 15th. Gala Games is a gaming, metaverse, and non-fungible token platform, and is working to launch its own smart chain, known as GalaChain. At the time of writing, GALA is trading at a 12.95% daily surge.
Summary of Market Events and Price Action
As a summary of today’s events and price action in the market, it is crucial to note the following key points:
- Michael Saylor’s Lightning announcement
- BTC back to over $30,000
- ETH stays firmly on $2,100
- USDT market cap close to ATH
- ICP has an impressive surge of more than 13%
- SOL holders appear to have “sold the news”
- RPL becomes the second biggest loser in the top 100 despite new update
- CORE, VET, GALA increase as people spread the word
Top Altcoin Gainers and Losers
Gainers:
Radix XRD (+37.85%)
Internet Computer ICP (+13.17%)
Arbitrum ARB (+9.09%)
Losers:
Injective INJ (-7.73%)
Rocket Pool RPL (-2.40%)
XDC Network XDC (-2.23%)
NFT Market Map
Azuki is the biggest winner among top Ethereum collections with a trading volume of \(4.8 million, while the NFTs hit \)35,000 in floor price, its highest level since May, 2022 as per NFTstatistics.eth. BEANZ Official also recorded a gain of 339.62% in volume, but that of Moonbirds was even bigger - 615.73% - following its Diamond Nest Edition announcement.
Nike is launching its first non-fungible token (NFT) sneaker collection called Our Force 1 (OF1) on its .Swoosh platform. Airdropped posters granting early access to the sale will be sent to select users from April 18, with the sale commencing on May 10. Nike added that the purchase will offer broader utility and possibilities with exclusive products and experiences in the future.
The Smurfs will release a new collection of non-fungible tokens (NFTs), expanding the reach of the characters into Web3. The NFTs are based on Smurf characters and will consist of 12,500 3D-rendered Smurf profile pictures (PFPs). The collection will be open to the public through a bucket auction, with 3,000 NFTs available at a starting price of 0.5ETH each. The Smurfs Society will reward early adopters with Crystals, which can be traded on secondary markets like OpenSea, as well as access to a discounted allow-list sale following the public bucket auction.
