Author: José Oramas

José is a journalist and translator with a keen interest in blockchain and cryptocurrencies.

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Bitcoin Crypto News Market Analysis Markets

Institutional Investors Have Sold $5.3 Billion in BTC Since LUNA Bust

Institutional investors have sold at least 236,000 bitcoin since the UST/LUNA collapse in early May, which roughly translates to over US$5.3 billion.

It All Started With Terra

According to Vetle Lunde, an analyst from Arcane Research, institutions have offloaded 236,237 BTC since May 10, most of it forced selling triggered by the Terraform Labs collapse, which caused contagion all over the crypto industry:

However, Lunde says it’s likely things are worse than what he’s reporting and the dollar value could be way higher than US$5.3 billion:

Most of the selling of the 236,237 BTC mentioned in this thread has been forced selling, and it’s likely been worse than what this thread covers with underwater retail and institutions capitulating.

Forced Selling Infects Bitcoin Miners

At the same time, Lunde reports, Tesla sold 75 percent of its bitcoin holdings – around 29,060 BTC at an average price of US$23,209. Moreover, the forced selling spread to Bitcoin miners who reportedly had to dump all of their BTC holdings generated in May, an effective doubling of the usual 20 percent to 40 percent:

BTC public miner sales. Source: Arcade Research

Shortly after the CPI (Consumer Price Index) sparked June’s broader market downturn, 3AC’s massive liquidation threw more fire into a market that was already burning. The infamous hedge fund now owes crypto lenders over US$3.5 billion.

Lunde ended his Twitter thread stating that the past two months’ capitulations, chapter 11 bankruptcies and July’s relief rally indicate contagion is getting resolved. “Less uncertain times ahead,” he concluded.

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Banking Crypto Exchange Crypto News Surveys

One Billion Crypto Users Predicted by 2030: Global Research Report

A joint report published by Boston Consulting Group, Bitget and Foresight Ventures predicts global crypto adoption could surge to 1 billion by 2030, with the US leading the adoption wave:

‘Plenty of Growth to Come’

Only 0.3 percent of US individual wealth is held in crypto, which is significantly lower compared to 25 percent held in equities. This suggests there’s still room to drive substantial crypto adoption and cryptocurrency exchanges will play a key role in that growth, according to the report:

Crypto exchanges play a key role in the Web3 ecosystem by providing access, liquidity, and infrastructure. With competition intensifying, crypto exchanges must adapt to the dynamic market situation and transform their strategy to beat the competition.

Crypto adoption report

One of the main drivers of crypto adoption was institutional companies hoarding massive amounts of crypto assets and offering crypto-related products between mid-2020 and early 2021. Since then, investment banks such as Morgan Stanley and JPMorgan have offered clients some form of crypto product/service, such as exposure to BTC funds and blockchain-based assets.

LatAm and APAC Offer High Market Potential

The report also outlines that Latin America and APAC are the two most attractive regions for crypto exchanges to expand on, given their high market potential and regulatory laws.

Australia ranked fifth in a recently published list of countries with the most crypto-friendly economies, while Germany and the US topped the table. Australia made the top five due to its proliferation of ICOs, exchanges and transaction volumes, and universities offering crypto and blockchain education courses.

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Crypto News Cryptocurrency Law Terra TerraUSD

Terra Drama Continues as Authorities Raid Exchanges Linked to the Collapse

South Korean authorities are raiding crypto exchanges linked to Terraform Labs’ collapse in May, according to report this week by News1 Korea:

‘At Least’ 15 Exchanges Raided

The Joint Financial and Securities Crime Investigation Team of the Seoul Southern District Prosecutors’ Office raided the offices of at least 15 entities, including Bithumb, Upbit, Coinone and Korbit. Prosecutors are seizing all materials that can work as evidence if Terraform Labs CEO Do Kwon or any other executive is found guilty of causing Terra’s meltdown.

A month ago, claims surfaced on Twitter accusing Do Kwon of cashing out over US$80 million a month prior to the LUNA collapse, which caused a domino effect on the stablecoin market.

Shortly after, Korean authorities launched a full-scale investigation targeting Terraform Labs staff. The company’s employees, who have been prohibited from exiting the country, were summonsed by prosecutors to testify as to their involvement with the project.

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Crypto Exchange Crypto News Zipmex

Zipmex Exchange Halts User Withdrawals Citing ‘Circumstances Beyond Our Control’

Southeast Asian digital assets exchange Zipmex has paused customer withdrawals due to “circumstances beyond our control and the resulting financial difficulties of our key business partners”:

Withdrawals ‘Expected to Resume’

With offices in Australia, Indonesia and Thailand, Zipmex describes itself as Asia’s leading cryptocurrency exchange, offering users a long list of crypto products and services. It has extended its maintenance period for Trade Wallet until July 22, the exchange tweeted. Withdrawals are expected to resume afterwards.

Marcus Lim, founder of Zipmex, denied rumours of the firm facing financial turbulence as a result of the crypto market crash and after Coinbase pulled out from its acquisition plan on June 9. He subsequently penned a letter to customers to apprise them of the situation:

Zipmex letter to customers. Source: Zipmex

While Coinbase didn’t acquire the exchange, it poured in an undisclosed amount of strategic financing after the acquisition deal fell through. In August last year, Zipmex separately raised over US$40 million.

Crypto Contagion Spreads

Zipmex is the latest of the numerous crypto-focused companies that have had to suspend withdrawals and other services amid current crypto market turmoil, causing contagion across the industry.

Two weeks ago, Crypto News Australia reported that Singaporean crypto lender Vauld had frozen withdrawals, trading and deposits on its platform.

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Crypto News NFTs OpenSea Solana

OpenSea Launches Sol-Based NFT Product for Creators to Mint New Projects from Scratch

Three months after OpenSea enabled support for Solana, the non-fungible token marketplace is kicking off its Solana launchpad to allow users to mint new projects from scratch.

According to an official blog post, OpenSea is looking forward to a “multi-chain future” with the introduction of the Solana launchpad. The platform will reportedly guide users throughout the process of pre-mint activity, allowlist minting for early supporters, and post-mint and secondary sales:

Multi-Chain Future for OpenSea Users

Most members of the OpenSea community were excited to see the integration of Solana into the marketplace, considering NFTs on the Solana ecosystem are popular and have generated considerable sales volumes in the past few months.

We believe in a multi-chain future where people on OpenSea have access to NFTs across a vast number of blockchains. In the last year, Solana has emerged among the top blockchains for NFTs, and we share their vision of a scalable and inclusive NFT ecosystem.

OpenSea blog post

On April 29, Solana-based NFT collection Okay Bears generated over US$18 million in trading volume, flipping Any Rivals volume on its first day.

There are already a handful of Sol-based NFT projects on OpenSea’s launchpad available for minting, including Zoonies and Monkai NFTs:

Categories
Crypto News Gemini Jobs

Crypto Job Rout Continues as Gemini and BlockFi Execute Second Round of Layoffs

Leading US crypto companies BlockFi and Gemini are launching another round of layoffs just a month after both companies announced cutting more than 10 percent of their respective staff complements due to “extreme market conditions”.

‘At Least 68’ Jobs to Go From Gemini

Gemini was reported to have issued an internal bulletin regarding a new round of layoffs on July 18, but it’s unknown exactly how many employees are affected. According to an unnamed source close to the company, however, at least 68 staff members – or 7 percent of the workforce – have been laid off due to “extreme cost-cutting”:

BlockFi Offers Buyouts

On the other hand CeFi lender BlockFi is offering employees buyouts – 10 weeks of paid leave and 10 weeks of health insurance – to resign. If accepted, employees would still be eligible for unemployment benefits.

Last month, BlockFi CEO Zac Prince announced that at least 20 percent of staff – or 170 employees – would be shed. “This is not a decision we take lightly and is one that brings us great sadness,” Prince tweeted at the time.

May’s market crash has led some other leading crypto companies, including Crypto.com and Coinbase, to downsize. Coinbase said that while the firm experienced “unprecedented growth” during early 2021’s bullish market, it blindfolded the company into a thumbed hiring spree. The exchange laid off more than 1,100 employees in June.

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Blockchain Crypto News Ethereum

ETH Rallies on September ‘Soft’ Timeline for Upcoming Merge

Ethereum core developer Tim Beiko has said that Ethereum’s long-awaited upgrade, the Merge, may take place from September 19, pumping ETH’s price 8 percent since the announcement.

‘It’s All Coming Together’

According to recent tweets from the Ethereum community, Goerli will be the last testnet to go through the proof-of-stake transition around August 11. If everything goes according to plan, the Ethereum mainnet merge could take place in the week starting September 19:

However, Beiko repeatedly said on Discord and Twitter that the timeline might change again. According to Beacon Chain community manager superphiz.eth, this merge timeline “isn’t final, but it’s extremely exciting to see it coming together”:

If all goes well, the Ethereum blockchain could finally transit from its current energy-intensive proof-of-work (PoW) blockchain to a more environmentally friendly proof-of-stake (PoS), providing users with faster and cheaper transactions.

Success For All Testnets So Far

So far, all testnets moved into PoS have thrown successful results. Last week, the Ethereum Foundation moved the Sepolia testnet to PoS.

On June 10, the Ropsten testnet went live on Ethereum’s new PoS chain, which Beiko referred to as a “dress rehearsal for node operators”. Once the final testnet goes live on the PoS chain, it will be Ethereum’s turn after seven long years.

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Crypto News DeFi Tornado Cash

Decentralised Mixer ‘Tornado’ Goes Open Source to Increase Transparency

Popular DeFi privacy protocol Tornado Cash has announced a fully open-source user interface for Tornado Cash Classic, allowing contributors to check out the code and suggest improvements via the platform’s GitHub.

UI vulnerabilities have been a major focus for the Tornado community and, according to a Medium post, the move is part of its efforts to prioritise a fully transparent and decentralised ecosystem:

We personally grew fond of the black and green floating astronaut associated with the protocol. However, you should know our credo by now: we will always lean towards more decentralisation.

Tornado Medium post

What is Tornado Cash?

Tornado Cash essentially works by allowing users to mix their crypto tokens in a pool of fellow users’ crypto, making it practically impossible to track.

In December last year, the protocol announced its integration with Arbitrum, a layer 2 solution that leverages optimistic rollups for Ethereum dApps to ensure faster speeds, lower fees and transaction privacy. 

In April, Tornado Cash started blocking US Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) addresses, stating that “maintaining financial privacy is essential to preserving our freedom, [though] it should not come at the cost of non-compliance”.

The protocol has long been a popular platform for users seeking anonymity and decentralisation. The current price of Tornado Cash (TORN) is US$20.40, as per data from CoinMarketCap, with a 24-hour trading volume of US$6.2 million.

Categories
Aave Crypto News DAO DeFi Stablecoins

DeFi Giant ‘Aave’ Announces Plans to Launch Own Stablecoin ‘GHO’

DeFi lending platform Aave plans to launch its own stablecoin, GHO, issued on the Ethereum network, the company announced in a blog post.

GHO would be a US dollar-pegged stablecoin over-collateralised by a diversified set of cryptocurrencies of users’ choice against their collateral. The proposal was submitted to the Aave DAO (Decentralised Autonomous Organisation) last week.

Stani Kulechov, founder of Aave, said the community would have to “start from a conservative angle and expand the new facilitators as the strategies become proven and battle-tested in DeFi“:

Interest Payments to Aave DAO Treasury

Users would have to borrow the stablecoin against their crypto funds and over-collateralise it just like any other Aave loan. According to the proposal, all interest payments generated by GHO minters would be transferred to the Aave DAO treasury:

If approved, the introduction of GHO would make stablecoin borrowing on the Aave Protocol more competitive, provide optionality for stablecoin users, and generate additional revenue for the Aave DAO by sending 100 percent of interest payments on GHO borrows to the DAO.

Aave governance proposal

Aave is one of the largest DeFi lending platforms, currently boasting US$6.76 billion in total value locked (TVL). The idea of launching a crypto-backed stablecoin is just one of the safer approaches taken by other cryptocurrency platforms instead of launching algorithmic stablecoins.

One protocol that has decided to back its algorithmic stablecoin is Tron Network, which over-collateralised its USDD stablecoin to prevent a TerraUSD-like collapse.

Categories
Crypto News Ethereum Ethereum Name Service

Ethereum Name Service (ENS) Registrations Surge 216% in a Week

Ethereum Name Service (ENS) registrations have surged over 200 percent in a week, according to ENS developer Nick Johnson (Nick.eth on Twitter).

The ENS had a bullish first weekend of the month, with over 64,000 accounts created on July 3 – a 216 percent spike that translates to US$684,000 in revenue, half a million more than on the previous day.

In June, ENS had more than 120,000 .eth registrations, registering over US$3 million in revenue:

Source: Data Studio

ENS is a domain name protocol that issues .eth domain registrations on the Ethereum blockchain. In other words, ENS turns a long crypto address into something similar to an URL, like Bob.eth or Alice.eth.

ENS Exceeds a Million Domain Names Milestone

On May 6, the ENS achieved the milestone of a million domain names created. At time of writing the ENS token was up 16 percent in the previous 24 hours, and was priced at US$10.25 apiece as per data from CoinMarketCap.

Budweiser is one of the few brands to have purchased an .eth domain. Back in August 2021, the American beverage giant announced its dive into crypto by paying 38 ETH for Beer.eth.