Category: Cryptocurrency

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Memecoins linked to former US President Donald Trump and celebrity Caitlyn Jenner surged on Monday following Trump’s weekend endorsement of cryptocurrency.

Newly minted tokens like MAGA on Ethereum and JENNER on Solana experienced dramatic price increases, with JENNER soaring 500-fold in the last 24 hours.

MAGA Token’s Meteoric Rise

The MAGA token, named after Trump’s “Make America Great Again” slogan, launched less than two weeks ago and has risen 150% in the last 24 hours. Its market value peaked at $300 million on Monday, with over $74 million in trading volume. Variants of MAGA and TRUMP tokens on Solana are also being launched on other blockchains, generating millions in trading volume.

JENNER Token Controversy

The JENNER token, associated with Caitlyn Jenner, saw almost $200 million in trading volume in the last 24 hours. However, there is skepticism about the token’s connection to the real Caitlyn Jenner, despite endorsements on her social media accounts. Jenner has not responded to requests for comment but has cautioned on social media that not all crypto investments are suitable for everyone and that there are inherent risks, including potential loss of value.

Trump’s Influence

Trump’s recent comments have significantly influenced the memecoin rally. Speaking at the Libertarian National Convention on Saturday, he pledged to protect self-custody rights for crypto owners and opposed the creation of a central bank digital currency. His shift from a previously negative stance on crypto to a supportive one has energized the memecoin market.

Political Memecoins

As the US presidential election approaches, political memecoins have become more prevalent. Earlier this year, tokens referencing political figures like US President Joe Biden and Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell were launched. On Monday, major political memecoins saw mixed results: Jeo Boden fell 6%, while Doland Tremp gained over 15%.

Controversy and Speculation

Memecoin speculation has its critics, especially regarding tokens with offensive tickers promoting racist and sexist ideas. Several such tokens, particularly on Solana, were launched earlier this year and have drawn significant criticism.

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Bitcoin (BTC) whales, significant holders of the cryptocurrency, have reignited their purchasing activity after a brief pause following Bitcoin’s record high in March. According to market intelligence firm CryptoQuant, there has been a notable increase in the 30-day percentage change in whale address holdings, suggesting a renewed interest in accumulating Bitcoin at current price levels.

In March, whales had boosted their BTC holdings by more than 9.8%. While their accumulation persisted into April, the growth rate slowed to 4.2% by May 1, coinciding with a significant market downturn that saw Bitcoin’s price drop by over 20% to below $57,000. However, since reaching the market bottom, the accumulation rate has rebounded to 5.5% as of May 22, indicating a resurgence in whale interest.

During the market downturn in early May, whales reportedly acquired 47,000 BTC, as highlighted by CryptoQuant CEO Ki Young Ju. The return of robust buying activity among Bitcoin whales suggests that they view current prices as advantageous for accumulation. Whales, typically defined as holders of Bitcoin addresses containing between 1,000 BTC and 10,000 BTC, excluding mining entities and crypto exchanges, tend to increase their buying during bull markets and decrease it during bearish phases.

Bitcoin is currently priced at $69,065, showing a 0.24% increase over the past 24 hours and a 3.58% rise over the week. The investment in Bitcoin by large investors, known as whales, has notably increased this year. Specifically, the amount of money they’ve put into Bitcoin has more than doubled, rising from $57 billion to $122 billion. This growth is calculated based on the realized cap of whale coins, which accounts for the total value of coins owned by whales at the moment of purchase, rather than their current market value.

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Crypto traders are closely monitoring the surging price of Ether (ETH), spurred by growing anticipation surrounding the potential approval of exchange-traded funds (ETFs) in the United States. Despite lingering doubts about the level of demand for these investment vehicles, bets on further gains in Ether are escalating.

The recent shift in stance by the US Securities & Exchange Commission (SEC) has triggered a notable 26% surge in Ether over the past seven days, marking its most significant weekly gain since the 2021 cryptocurrency bull market, according to Bloomberg data.

Investors are drawing parallels with the remarkable debut of US spot Bitcoin ETFs in January, which have quickly amassed $59 billion in assets. However, Ether, being less mainstream than Bitcoin, presents challenges in gauging investor interest.

One key distinction is that spot-their ETFs will not participate in staking, a process crucial for earning rewards by pledging tokens to support the Ethereum blockchain. This omission raises concerns about the attractiveness of these funds compared to direct token ownership.

While major players like BlackRock Inc. and Fidelity Investments await SEC approvals to launch Ether-related products, the timeline for such developments remains uncertain. As of Monday morning in London, Ether was trading around $3,900, with Bitcoin hovering near $68,500.

Chris Weston, Head of Research at Pepperstone Group, remains bullish on Ether, emphasizing that any pullbacks present buying opportunities.

Options markets indicate growing optimism, with significant concentrations of bullish bets targeting Ether reaching $5,000 or higher, as observed on the Deribit trading platform. The current spot-Ether record stands at $4,866, set in November 2021.

Volatility in Ether is expected to intensify, with the gap between the T3 Ether Volatility Index and its Bitcoin counterpart widening significantly since early 2023. This suggests that speculators anticipate greater price swings in Ether compared to Bitcoin.

Analysts are also scrutinizing the demand for Ether futures offered by Chicago-based CME Group Inc. as a barometer of institutional interest in regulated crypto exposure in the US. While open interest in CME Ether futures is rising, it remains substantially lower than that of CME Bitcoin futures, indicating comparatively lesser institutional involvement with Ether.

Noelle Acheson, author of the Crypto Is Macro Now newsletter, cautions that the modest participation from institutions, which are expected to flock to Ether ETFs upon launch, could lead to underwhelming initial inflows into these products.

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Renowned Portuguese footballer Cristiano Ronaldo has announced a collaboration with Binance for the launch of his fourth non-fungible token collection. This new collection, set to debut on May 29 on the Binance NFT Marketplace, will celebrate highlights from Ronaldo’s storied football career.

Ronaldo expressed excitement about this project, emphasizing his journey across the globe and his tenure with some of the world’s most prestigious football clubs.

Details of the New Collection

The exact number of NFTs in this collection remains undisclosed, and pricing details have not yet been revealed. It is known that each “Normal NFT” will have a uniform price, while the final Super Rare NFT will have a unique pricing structure. Previous NFT collections involving Ronaldo have included exclusive opportunities for holders, such as playing football with the legendary player as part of Binance promotions.

However, this collaboration is not without its complications. Ronaldo is currently involved in a legal battle over his participation in NFT sales with Binance. In November 2023, he faced a class-action lawsuit in a U.S. district court in Florida. The plaintiffs alleged that Ronaldo was involved in offering and selling unregistered securities with Binance and should have been aware of Binance’s activities.

Trends in the NFT Space

There has been a noticeable trend of companies withdrawing from the NFT market. In March, Starbucks (NASDAQ:SBUX) terminated its NFT rewards program. Similarly, GameStop (NYSE:GME) closed its NFT marketplace in January after reducing its crypto services over the past two years. More recently, X  under Elon Musk discontinued a feature that allowed premium users to use NFT images as profile pictures.

Binance’s Regulatory Troubles

The legal issues surrounding Ronaldo coincide with increasing regulatory scrutiny on Binance globally. Last year, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission charged Binance with operating an illegal digital asset derivatives exchange and evading federal laws. The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission also charged Binance Holdings LTD and former CEO Changpeng Zhao with operating unregistered exchanges and the unregistered offer and sale of securities.

Binance and CZ pleaded guilty to several federal charges, including anti-money laundering violations and unlicensed money transmission, on November 21, 2023. As part of an agreement with the Department of Justice, CZ resigned as CEO of Binance.

In March, a group of investors seeking to sue Binance, its former CEO, and other executives were given a new opportunity to pursue their case.

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Ethereum core developers have announced that the highly anticipated Pectra upgrade will be launched by the end of Q1 2025. This decision follows the successful deployment of the Dencun upgrade in March 2024 and aims to avoid rushing the release, allowing for the inclusion of more impactful user features.

Strategic Planning for Pectra Upgrade

Developers have considered various timelines for the Pectra upgrade, ultimately deciding to delay it until after the Devcon developer summit in November 2024 in Bangkok. This strategic delay will provide a more measured development process and enable the addition of features that enhance user experience.

In a recent document, Ethereum developers expressed their preference for a Q1 2025 release, noting that delaying the upgrade has minimal impact on users and allows for an expanded scope to include more significant features.

The Dencun upgrade deployment on the Goerli testnet highlighted the importance of timing and thorough preparation. Developers faced challenges achieving consensus within the expected timeframe but ultimately resolved these issues, emphasizing the need for careful planning for the Pectra upgrade.

Focus Areas for Pectra Upgrade

The Pectra upgrade will enhance both the consensus and execution layers of Ethereum. A key improvement will be the integration of PeerDAS, which aims to boost Ethereum’s data availability capacity ahead of the Osaka upgrade.

The Osaka upgrade, a future hard fork, is expected to include features initially planned for Pectra, such as Verkle Trees, a new data structure designed to improve Ethereum’s scalability and decentralization.

During the Execution Layer Meeting, developers discussed supporting longstanding authorization use cases in Ethereum’s account management system, including mechanisms to keep authorizations active during transactions and potential replacements for EIP-3074 with EIP-7702 to achieve better account abstraction compatibility.

The team also considered including the Ethereum Object Format to enhance smart contract security and the developer experience. They decided to include EIP-7702 in the next development net and remove EIP-3074, while also discussing the implementation status of various other Ethereum Improvement Proposals.

Ethereum Layer 2 Networks Reach New TVL High

According to L2BEAT, the total value locked in Ethereum Layer 2 networks has reached a record high of $47.45 billion. Arbitrum One leads with a TVL of $19.3 billion, followed by OP Mainnet at $7.88 billion and Base at $6.94 billion. Other blockchains with over $1 billion in TVL include Blast, Mantle, Linea, and Starknet. Overall, Ethereum Layer 2 TVL has surged by 17.39% in the past week.

This bullish trend is driven by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission’s approval of spot Ethereum exchange-traded funds on May 23, along with ETF applications from issuers such as BlackRock (NYSE:BLK), Fidelity, Grayscale, and VanEck. This marks the second spot digital asset ETF approval in the U.S., following the spot Bitcoin ETFs in January. These issuers are currently submitting S-1 forms, with launches expected within weeks.

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Traditional banks may still lead the financial industry in terms of assets, but credit unions are gaining popularity among eligible Americans.

Recent data reveals approximately 4,600 credit unions in the United States. A September 2023 report from the National Credit Union Administration  highlighted that nearly 139 million Americans were members of federally insured credit unions, marking a 20% increase over the past five years.

Additionally, the credit union market size measured by revenue totaled $126.2 billion last year.

John Wingate, CEO of financial platform BankSocial, explained to Cryptonews that a credit union operates as a member-owned bank. “Unlike for-profit banks owned by shareholders, credit unions are owned by the members, one member, one share, one vote,” said Wingate. “This aligns perfectly with the decentralized finance ethos.”

Despite this alignment, credit unions face challenges that could hinder future growth. Kyle Hauptman, Vice Chairman of the NCUA, noted that credit unions often engage in a cumbersome process called ‘loan participations,’ where ownership interests in a loan are divided and sold. This process can be complex, as the credit union purchasing a participation stake may not know if payments have been made or if the selling credit union will pay the required portion.

Hauptman suggested that tokenizing smaller loans could address these challenges. “A smart contract would automatically pay the buying credit union their share,” he said, eliminating the need for the purchasing credit union to inquire about payments.

Ravi de Silva, Managing Partner at de Risk Partners, mentioned that tokenization could enhance compliance risk management by providing greater transparency, security, and efficiency. He pointed out that tokenization could be beneficial for Anti-Money Laundering (AML) purposes by enabling efficient analysis of transactional data and improving customer due diligence processes.

Given these benefits, some credit unions have begun implementing tokenization solutions. BankSocial is working with several credit unions to tokenize identity and transactional data through hashing. Wingate noted that BankSocial’s solutions use Hedera Hashgraph’s distributed ledger technology  to tokenize payments and deposits for peer-to-peer transactions on the Hedera network.

Additionally, Metallicus, through its Metal blockchain, is collaborating with credit unions like Vibrant, Meritrust Credit Union, and Fairwinds to develop blockchain-based solutions. According to Marshall Hayner, COO of Metallicus, the Metal blockchain enables financial institutions to create interoperable ledgers for seamless communication.

Despite these advancements, regulatory concerns persist. Hauptman mentioned that credit unions are uncertain whether tokens might be deemed securities. While the NCUA has provided guidance for tokenization use, other regulatory concerns remain, including KYC processes and the custodianship of tokens.

Nevertheless, Hauptman believes that U.S. credit unions are better positioned to implement tokenization compared to banks, thanks to NCUA’s regulatory clarity. For example, in July 2021, the NCUA published a “Request for Information and Comment on Digital Assets and Related Technologies” report, followed by guidance documents on digital assets and distributed ledger technologies.

De Silva emphasized the importance of credit unions working closely with compliance teams to adopt industry best practices for tokenization. “It’s crucial to establish a robust framework that aligns tokenization practices with regulations while prioritizing the security and privacy of customer data,” he said.

With continued collaboration and adherence to regulatory guidelines, credit unions can successfully navigate the complexities of tokenization and harness its potential benefits.

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Popular canine-themed meme coins, Dogecoin (DOGE) and Shiba Inu (SHIB), experienced a significant spike on Friday following a tweet from Elon Musk about the passing of Kabosu, the dog that inspired these tokens.

DOGE surged by as much as 5%, reaching a session high of 17.3 cents within minutes of Musk’s tweet, while SHIB increased nearly 3% during the same timeframe. Despite these gains being short-lived, with both cryptos pulling back, DOGE remained up 6% and SHIB up 1% over the past 24 hours, outperforming the mostly flat CoinDesk 20 Index.

This market activity highlights Musk’s influential impact on memecoins, sparking speculation among crypto enthusiasts about his potential role as one of the largest Dogecoin holders and the possibility of integrating the token into a payment system for X (formerly known as Twitter, now owned by Musk).

Kabosu, the Shiba Inu that became the face of Dogecoin and other meme tokens, passed away early Friday, according to a blog post by her owner. Kabosu was over 17 years old.

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OKX, one of the largest cryptocurrency exchanges globally, has opted to withdraw its application to operate in Hong Kong, marking a notable development in the regulatory landscape.

In a recent announcement, OKX cited strategic considerations for its decision to withdraw its application for a Virtual Asset Service Provider (VASP) license in Hong Kong. The exchange emphasized that this move followed careful deliberation of its business strategy.

As a result of this decision, OKX will cease providing centralized virtual asset trading services in Hong Kong by May 31. However, customers will retain the ability to withdraw their funds from the platform.

This withdrawal comes amidst a trend of other applicants retracting their applications from the approval process. Notably, earlier this month, several applicants, including the Hong Kong-based subsidiary of HTX and Huobi Hong Kong, followed suit by withdrawing their applications with the Securities and Futures Commission.

The Securities and Futures Commission is currently reviewing license applications from numerous major cryptocurrency exchanges, including Crypto.com and Bullish, the owner of CoinDesk. However, the regulator has only approved two exchanges thus far, with the latest approval granted in 2022.

OKX’s decision to withdraw its application underscores the evolving and complex regulatory environment surrounding cryptocurrency exchanges. As the industry navigates these regulatory challenges, exchanges must carefully evaluate their strategies and adapt to ensure compliance and sustainability in the long term.

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The adoption of cryptocurrency is significantly bolstered when large funds, such as pensions and endowments, begin investing. Notable among these are university endowments, which manage substantial assets for their respective institutions.

The University of Michigan is actively participating in cryptocurrency investments through the CNK Fund I, L.P., managed by Andreessen Horowitz. This fund targets “cryptonetwork technology companies across various stages, from seed to growth.” In June 2018, the University of Michigan’s endowment made an initial investment of $3 million into this fund. As of June 2023, the endowment’s total value was $17.9 billion.

Recent communications to the university’s Regents indicated additional investments in this fund, although the exact amount remains undisclosed, it is presumed to be in the millions.

The university’s rationale for this investment is based on the belief that “crypto has become an important area of innovation and entrepreneurship that warrants focused attention,” and as the opportunities related to cryptonetworks become more defined, the need for a separate thematic fund may diminish.

The University of Michigan is not alone in this venture. Yale University, with an endowment valued at $40.7 billion as of June 2023, contributed to a $400 million capital raise for a crypto fund from Coinbase (NASDAQ:COIN) and Pantera Capital in 2018.

Similarly, the Harvard endowment, the largest at over $50.7 billion as of June 2023, has also invested in cryptocurrency funds. As early as 2018, Harvard disclosed investments in “at least one cryptocurrency fund.”

Other prominent universities, including Stanford University, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dartmouth College, and the University of North Carolina, have also allocated funds to crypto or crypto-related investments.

Despite the initial wave of investments in 2018, follow-on investments and additional commitments have been made in subsequent years. As the cryptocurrency market evolves and becomes more accessible through avenues like spot ETFs, it is likely that endowments and large funds will continue to increase their crypto investments.

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The US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has made a groundbreaking decision by greenlighting the potential launch of eight exchange-traded funds (ETFs) tied to ether, the world’s second-largest cryptocurrency. This move comes on the heels of the SEC’s earlier approval of bitcoin ETFs, marking a significant shift in the regulatory landscape for digital assets.

The approval of ether ETFs represents a notable departure from the SEC’s historical stance on the cryptocurrency industry. Legal victories, such as Grayscale’s successful challenges against the SEC’s rulings, have played a pivotal role in prompting the agency to reconsider its approach to spot ETF applications.

Crucial rule changes paved the way for the SEC’s approval, enabling ETFs to directly invest in ether, the native cryptocurrency of Ethereum. Major financial institutions including BlackRock, Fidelity, Grayscale, Bitwise, VanEck, Ark, Invesco Galaxy, and Franklin Templeton have received the regulatory green light. However, further approvals are required before these products can officially enter the market.

The SEC’s decision follows months of anticipation, with the regulator unexpectedly providing feedback on pending applications earlier in the week. This swift action is likely in response to looming deadlines for responses to ether ETF applications.

The anticipation surrounding these approvals has triggered a surge in ether’s price, soaring over 20% since Monday and more than 60% since the beginning of the year. This surge underscores investors’ growing confidence in the mainstream acceptance of cryptocurrencies.

Ether currently commands a market capitalization exceeding $450 billion, constituting approximately 18% of the total cryptocurrency market value, according to CoinMarketCap data cited on Yahoo Finance.

Industry experts have hailed the SEC’s approval of spot Ether ETFs as a watershed moment for crypto adoption within capital markets. Sergey Nazarov, co-founder of Chainlink, emphasized the significance of Ethereum ETF approval in fostering mainstream adoption. Sumit Gupta, Co-founder of CoinDCX, described the SEC’s decision as a maturing regulatory environment conducive to mainstream adoption.

The SEC’s approval lays the groundwork for the potential inclusion of ether in investment portfolios, including retirement accounts and pension plans. Furthermore, this development is expected to buoy bitcoin prices, which have already been gaining traction since receiving approval earlier this year.

In Washington, a bill aimed at reducing the SEC’s influence on crypto regulation and establishing the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) as the primary regulator for cryptocurrencies has passed the US House of Representatives. This legislative initiative reflects evolving attitudes toward crypto regulation and underscores the dynamic nature of the regulatory landscape.

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