Even at a time when major crypto coins are struggling to stay liquid, OKB, the native token of cryptocurrency exchange OKX, is up 100% this year. But its circulating supply, a key metric that determines its market capitalization, is a matter of dispute. On Coinmarketcap, a crypto data site owned by Binance – the world’s biggest cryptocurrency exchange by trading volume, the token has a … Continue reading Notes 3/6: OKB Token, Multicoin Capital
The crypto industry was hit by a double whammy over the weekend from the Wall Street Journal. First, the paper published a report on Friday that accuses Tether, the world’s biggest stablecoin, of using false documents to open bank accounts. On a conference call, Phil Potter, Tether’s former chief strategy officer, allegedly referred to “cat and mouse” games played by crypto players to get around … Continue reading Notes 3/5: Tether and Binance
This past week threw crypto’s banking problems into sharp relief. Silvergate Bank was arguably the biggest provider of banking services to the crypto industry and its unraveling will significantly reduce options available to crypto businesses for access to the world of mainstream financial services. As I wrote last year, three banks – Silvergate, Signature, and Customers – were responsible for banking most crypto firms. After … Continue reading The Future of Crypto Banking
Bitcoin price, which had been range bound in the last week, plunged by 5.5% in 15 mins to $22,113 yesterday. The cryptocurrency’s latest price action is being blamed on Silvergate Bank’s problems. As of this writing, it is changing hands for $22,354.40, down 4.3% from its price a day earlier. The bank, which derives a significant chunk of its business from the crypto industry, told … Continue reading Notes 3/3: Bitcoin and Ether Price
Shares for Silvergate Capital, the entity that owns a bank that services the cryptocurrency ecosystem, crashed by more than 40% after it announced a delay in filing its annual report. The company also said it was “analyzing certain regulatory and other inquiries and investigations that are pending,” suggesting that it may have been caught in the crosshairs of an ongoing crypto crackdown by regulators. Silvergate, … Continue reading Notes 3/2: Silvergate Bank, MakerDAO’s Terra Transformation
Excitement for the Shanghai Upgrade, the next stage in Ethereum’s move to proof of stake, is reaching fever pitch. Staking platform Lido, the biggest player in the space, announced Saturday that it had recorded its highest daily inflow of staked tokens of 150,000 ether worth approximately $240 million. TRON founder Justin Sun, who also doubles up as a diplomat, staked the tokens. In an appearance … Continue reading Notes 3/1: Lido’s Decentralization, Ether Prices
Coinbase today announced that it is delisting BUSD from its exchange. The cryptocurrency exchange claims that the coin did not meet its listing criteria for tokens. It is not clear what those listing criteria are since tokens without value or utility, such as Dogecoin, seem to have passed its listing test. In any case, Coinbase’s decision should not make much difference to BUSD’s prospects. The … Continue reading Notes 2/28: Binance’s BUSD, Bitcoin Price
Solana, a blockchain that was once referred to as an “Ethereum Killer”, crashed twice over the weekend and ejected itself out of circulation to users for 20 hours. According to reports, the blockchain’s problems started on Saturday morning with a “forking” event during which transaction history on validators – systems responsible for confirming transactions on its network – began going awry. The number of transactions … Continue reading Notes 2/27: Solana Outage, Crypto As Security
Coinbase announced the launch of a test version of Base, a Layer 2 solution for Ethereum, yesterday. The company stated that the Layer 2 solution was a “secure, low-cost, developer friendly chain.” Base uses open-source software from Optimism – an already-existing solution that works off Ethereum. It has also set up a Base Ecosystem Fund to entice developers to work on the test chain … Continue reading Notes 2/24: Coinbase Base, Circle’s Hiring Spree, Bitcoin Price
Cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase’s earnings yesterday reflected the debilitating pain of an unpredictable crypto winter. Perhaps, the most telling statistic in the company’s report is the precipitous decline in the number of assets held on its platform. Between the fourth quarter of 2021, a time when bitcoin price set a record, and the same period a year later, customers withdrew slightly more than $100 billion worth … Continue reading Notes 2/23: Coinbase Earnings
Binance’s stablecoin BUSD’s loss is Tether’s gain. According to Reuters, the biggest stablecoin by market capitalization has seen its share of the overall stablecoin market rise to 52.6% from 51% earlier. The USD Coin is also a beneficiary of BUSD’s fall. The Circle-issued token witnessed a 0.4% increase in its market share to 31.3% after investors fled BUSD. The shuffling around of market share among … Continue reading Notes 2/21: Reordering the Stablecoin Market
Kevin Zhou of Galois Capital conducted a victory lap in the media after shorting Luna, the native token at Terraform Labs that collapsed in spectacular fashion, last May. “…And at some point, if everybody believes something, generally doing the opposite is very profitable,” he explained to one interviewer. Alas, his contrarian skills did not hold him in good stead when it came to analyzing FTX. … Continue reading Notes 2/20: Galois Capital, Bitcoin Price
There’s been considerable handwringing over regulatory action and its negative effect on cryptocurrencies in recent days. One place where that effect seems less pronounced is bitcoin price. While the crypto community erupted in protest against the SEC’s regulatory actions towards Kraken’s staking service and Binance’s stablecoin BUSD, bitcoin price seemed to take it into its stride. As of this writing, bitcoin price is $22,843.81, up … Continue reading Notes 2/15: Stablecoin Market Capitalizations and Legislation
BUSD is the world’s third biggest stablecoin and is used extensively at Binance – the world’s third biggest cryptocurrency exchange by trading volume. Perhaps it is a testimony to crypto’s heft (or grift) that even action by the world’s most powerful regulatory agency could not de-peg the stablecoin. According to research firm Nansen, $2.7 billion fled from Binance between Sunday – when news of the … Continue reading Notes 2/14: BUSD Damage
Following its settlement with Kraken on Friday, the Securities Exchange Commission (SEC) dropped another bombshell last night. According to a WSJ report, the agency has served a Wells Notice to Paxos Trust Ltd., issuer of Binance’s stablecoin BUSD. A Wells Notice is an informational notice that is sent before the agency commences litigation. In this case, it plans to sue Paxos for selling unregistered securities. … Continue reading Notes 2/13: BUSD In Trouble
The mystery of Tether’s finances is slowly being unraveled. The Wall Street Journal (WSJ) yesterday published a report claiming that the stablecoin is using investment firm Cantor Fitzgerald to help manage its $39 billion treasury bond portfolio. The firm is a primary dealer in the Treasury Market, a designation that enables it to conduct direct trades with the New York Federal Reserve. Separately, Forbes published … Continue reading Notes 2/12: Tether Finances, Tornado Cash Revisited
The SEC’s regulatory blow to Kraken yesterday and Chairman Gary Gensler’s warning this morning on CNBC have fed into speculation that cryptocurrency staking, one of the most lucrative corners of crypto, is facing an existential threat. But it might be a bit much to extrapolate from the SEC’s actions yesterday. Terms of Service Red Flags Kraken’s terms of service for its staking service had red … Continue reading Notes 2/10: Crypto Staking’s Future, Bitcoin Price
Bitcoin is moving further away from inventor Satoshi Nakamoto’s vision for the cryptocurrency as a peer-to-peer version of electronic cash. It is hardly used as a medium of exchange for transactions. Now one of the few places that offered peer-to-peer interactions in the bitcoin ecosystem is shutting down. LocalBitcoins, a peer-to-peer bitcoin exchange platform, announced today that it planning to close operations at the end … Continue reading Notes 2/8: The Shutdown Game: LocalBitcoins and Kraken’s Staking Service
Controversial stablecoin Tether released the latest iteration of its attestation report, this time from the future, for reserves backing its circulating supply. The report states that Tether had assets of $67.04 billion while its liabilities, equal to its circulating supply, were $66.08 billion as of December 31, 2022. Technically, this should mean that the stablecoin had adequate reserves on that day to make investors whole … Continue reading Tether’s Eliminates Commercial Paper Holdings But Increases Other Risk Assets In Latest Attestation
Bitcoin price mirrored equity markets and jumped ever so slightly before falling in response to Fed Chairman Jerome Powell’s comments about inflation easing at the Economic Club of Washington, D.C. “The disinflationary process, the process of getting inflation down, has begun and it’s begun in the goods sector, which is about a quarter of our economy,” he said, before adding that it has a “long … Continue reading Notes 2/8: Bitcoin Price, Binance Audit
After the spate of recent bankruptcies and scandals, crypto observers are waiting for the fall of a massive domino, one that would crash its ecosystem and prices. The crypto conglomerate Digital Currency Group (DCG) had become a strong contender for that title due to various problems at its subsidiaries. But it might not be the player to tip over the crypto house of cards. DCG … Continue reading Notes 2/7: DCG Finds A Way Out, MakerDAO Earnings
