While the crypto world’s attention is transfixed by the decline in bitcoin price, Ethereum’s native token, ether, is quietly undergoing its own price spiral. According to analytics firm Glassnode, ether balances at exchanges are at their lowest level since 2016. The firm says that only 14.85% of all ether was held in wallets at… Read More Notes 5/26: Ether Supply Problems
Bitcoin price remained stagnant over the weekend and continues to trade sideways in the $26,000 range. As of this writing, it is at $26,904.77, roughly unchanged from its price a day earlier. A Tight Range The days of frothy trading in the cryptocurrency’s ecosystem, when its price regularly notched up double-digit gains and set records,… Read More Notes 5/22: Bitcoin Price, Tornado Cash’s TORN, and Proof of Reserves in Texas
Bitcoin price rallied past the $27,000 mark yesterday morning but is back in the $26,000 range today. As of this writing, the cryptocurrency is changing hands at $26,923, down 1.2% from a day earlier. Amid regulatory crackdowns and investor defections in the United States, there is a sliver of positive news from Asia. CoinDesk reports… Read More Notes 5/19: Bitcoin Price Is Stagnant, Ether Use Cases Dwindle While its Staking Rewards Multiply
Tether is Bitcoin’s new savior. The crypto world’s biggest stablecoin plans to increase bitcoin holdings in its reserves by investing 15% of its future profits into bitcoin. According to its latest attestation report, Tether had $1.5 billion worth of bitcoin on its books. The firm said it will use “realized profits”, or profits accruing to… Read More Notes 3/17: Bitcoin in Tether’s Reserves
Staking platform Lido’s pile of $12 billion worth of ether came online yesterday after the platform commenced staking withdrawals. Lido is Ethereum’s biggest staking platform, accounting for approximately 32% of all staked ether as of this writing. Mass withdrawals from the platform could have had a catastrophic effect on ether price from individuals selling their… Read More Notes 5/16: Lido Begins Withdrawals, Aragon DAO Drama
Blame it on multiple open tabs. Or on a lizard brain. In the post on Tether’s reserves day before yesterday, I forgot to mention the most important risk facing the stablecoin: a debt default. Unlike past years, the prospect of a debt default by the US government is a very real threat this year. Both… Read More How Does A Debt Default Affect Stablecoins?
Controversial stablecoin Tether released its latest reserves report for the first quarter yesterday. As usual, there are many red flags. The stablecoin has released an attestation and not an audit, meaning the accounting firm responsible for verifying Tether’s reserves only checked the state of its finances at a particular moment in time. What’s more, their… Read More Tether Releases Attestation Report
Crypto exchange Bittrex has decided to “bury the baby” after being charged by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) last month for breaking securities rules even as it minted $1.3 billion in profit. The Seattle exchange filed for bankruptcy yesterday in Delaware. It listed 100,000 creditors and liabilities of between $500 million to $1 billion.… Read More Notes 5/9: Bittrex Buries the Baby, Bitcoin Price Falls
The crisis of congestion in bitcoin’s network shows no signs of abating. The average fee to conduct bitcoin transactions reached $19.20 yesterday. While those fees are funding miner profits, bitcoin traders are left holding the bag. As of this writing, the cryptocurrency’s price is $27,962, down almost 4% in the last 24 hours. It has… Read More Notes 5/8: Bitcoin’s Evolution
The average price to commit a transaction on Ethereum shot up amid hysteria for a meme coin last week. It remains high, as of this writing. According to data from online publication The Block, the average transaction price on the world’s second biggest blockchain is $15.63, up from $9.52 a week earlier. The total number… Read More Notes 5/7: Minting Profits from Ethereum’s Problems, Bitcoin Price
It is mostly difficult to make sense of opaque crypto markets and their jargon. Coinbase’s earnings provide a window into their workings. The company, which is a flag bearer for crypto in North America, had a mixed bag of numbers to report for the past quarter. While its revenue increased on the back of increased… Read More Notes 5/5: Coinbase Earnings
Stablecoin issuer Circle made news at crypto shindig Consensus last week by announcing a Cross Chain Transfer Protocol (CCTP) to ensure “seamless liquidity” of their token USDC. In simple words, this means that the CCTP will enable USDC holders to move the token between different blockchains. According to the company, the CCTP is currently functional… Read More Notes 4/29: Circle Cross Chain Transfer Protocol
A common refrain when crypto began imploding last year was that decentralized finance (DeFi) had emerged as a winner from the crisis because it was working as planned. But that hasn’t stopped investors from pulling out their money from DeFi tokens. Based on data from Defillama, the total value locked – an erroneous sum of… Read More Notes 4/28: Tokenized Treasuries
One of the biggest pieces of news last week was Coinbase’s decision to file for a license to operate a derivatives exchange in Bermuda. In its wake, another prominent cryptocurrency exchange Gemini jumped onto the news train and announced the launch of Gemini Foundation – a “non-US” derivatives exchange that is planned to be situated,… Read More Notes 4/24: Crypto Derivatives
There was a thaw in the crypto winter yesterday, a glimmer of celebration, cloaked in schadenfreude, at the House Financial Services Committee hearing yesterday. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) Chairman Gary Gensler, sometimes referred to as crypto’s favorite whipping boy, testified before the committee yesterday. Crypto twitter cheered when a group of Republican Congressmen laid… Read More Notes 4/19: SEC Chief Gary Gensler’s Congressional Hearing
Prices for tokens of Liquid Staking Derivatives (LSD) platforms have soared in the week after Ethereum’s Shapella upgrade. LSD platforms simplify the staking process and ensure liquidity for staked ether, even after it is locked in a smart contract. For their services, staking platforms have accumulated some of the biggest holdings of staked ether. An… Read More Notes 4/18: LSD Tokens, BNB Burns
Just how illiquid is crypto? The latest quarterly report from Kaiko Research sheds some light on the answer. TrueUSD pair had just 2 BTC worth of liquidity in early March. That compared with 400 BTC worth of liquidity for Binance’s stablecoin BUSD and between 1,000 to 1,500 for Tether’s USDT, the world’s biggest stablecoin that… Read More Notes 4/8: TUSD Illiquidity, Banning Crypto
With respite from regulators, the crypto news cycle’s attention has shifted to price. Except for a foray to $27,629 this past Monday, bitcoin price has dawdled in the $28,000 range for most of last week. Analysts say a key resistance level for the cryptocurrency is $30,000. A Difficult Transition But current conditions are difficult for… Read More Notes 4/5: Bitcoin and Ether Prices
The team at Kaiko research is out with some curious data that contradicts recent news about crypto liquidity. Trading volumes reached a four-month high for the overall cryptocurrency ecosystem in March even as major exchanges witnessed a steep decline in their market share, the research firm wrote in a post. Binance, the world’s biggest cryptocurrency… Read More Notes 4/3: Crypto Exchange Volumes
What does the CFTC’s case against Binance mean for crypto’s future? Binance is the world’s biggest cryptocurrency exchange by trading volume. It is also home to the biggest trading volumes for bitcoin and ether, the world’s two biggest cryptocurrencies. But the announcement of a lawsuit against the company by the CFTC yesterday hardly dented bitcoin… Read More Notes 3/28: CFTC Lawsuit Against Binance, Staking Withdrawals, and Tron and Tether
There is no rest for the wicked. Or, for businesses operating in cryptocurrencies. An onslaught of the fledgling sector by regulators, which began earlier this year, reached a sort of apogee this morning with the Commodities Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) charging Binance, the world’s biggest trading platform by volume for cryptocurrencies. The agency stated… Read More Notes 3/27: CFTC Sues Binance