- Cardano’s ADA Paints ‘Death Cross’ Amid Regulatory Uncertainty
The moving average crossovers are backward-looking and considered unreliable as standalone indicators. That said, the latest death cross is consistent with the dour regulatory outlook for ADA and alternative cryptocurrencies (altcoins), in general.
Crypto traders were caught off guard earlier this month after the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), in its lawsuit against Binance, classified a slew of tokens as securities, including ADA.
Cardano development company IOG promptly rejected the SEC’s claim. Still, ADA ran into selling pressure and has lost 30% of its market value this month, the most significant single-month decline since March 2022. The sell-off probably stems from fears that being categorized as security would subject ADA to greater regulatory oversight.
- TUSD Supply Skyrockets With 1 Billion Injection Amidst Decline in Stablecoins
In a recent stablecoin update, Bitcoin.com News shed light on the challenging times faced by the dollar-pegged token economy, with significant redemptions causing its market valuation to plummet to its lowest point in 20 months. As of June 19, 2023, the collective market capitalization of the leading stablecoins amounts to $129.99 billion, while these tokens have witnessed global trade volume of $20.84 billion in the past 24 hours.
Notably, three of the top five stablecoins in terms of market capitalization, namely USDC, DAI, and BUSD, have experienced supply reductions ranging from 3.8% to 22% over the past 30 days. TUSD, on the other hand, has witnessed a supply increase of about 53.5% over the past month.
The stablecoin experienced a surge in market valuation on June 16, 2023, reaching $3.11 billion, a substantial jump from the previous day’s $2.04 billion. This means that while TUSD grew by 53.5% within 30 days, a single day last Friday accounted for 52% of that increase. According to the smart contract data on Etherscan, the circulating supply of TUSD tokens on June 19 is approximately 3,135,633,560.
- Binance Issues Another Cease and Desist to ‘Scam’ Company, Second In A Week
Crypto exchange Binance has issued a cease and desist order to a fraudulent company using its name—for the second time in a week.
This time, Binance took to Twitter to share that it has issued a cease and desist notice to UK-based Binance Ltd, which it described as “a scam company” that is “not affiliated with Binance in any way.”
The statement came in response to a recent Reddit post claiming that “the billion dollar crypto company, Binance, has a utility closet listed as an office in the UK.” The post referenced Binance Ltd, a company with a registered office in the small rural town of Mildenhall, Suffolk.
Its listed address points to the headquarters of OfficeServ, a virtual registered address service provider, with the premises sharing the same address with more than 2,400 companies, according to Companies House.
https://decrypt.co/145384/binance-issues-another-cease-and-desist-to-scam-company-second-in-a-week
- Binance’s BNB Chain Introduces Layer-2 Testnet Powered By Optimism
Binance-founded layer-1 blockchain BNB Chain has introduced a new layer-2 chain that it hopes will address its “scalability challenge.”
On June 19, BNB Chain unveiled opBNB, which has launched as a testnet. The new layer-2 scaling solution is based on the Optimism OP Stack, which it says will add additional security and scalability to the Binance blockchain network.
The system is an Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM) compatible layer-2 chain, which means it works with Ethereum-based smart contracts, networks and ERC-20 token standards.
Blockchains are often plagued by network congestion and high fees during times of increased network demand. BNB Chain currently claims around 2,000 transactions per second with transaction costs of around $0.10.
https://www.binance.com/en/feed/post/669985
- Crypto lender Delio to resume withdrawals after counterparty contagion
According to a recent report by local news outlet Decenter, South Korean crypto lending platform Delio will resume withdrawals, albeit with no fixed schedule, after pausing them on June 14. In a meeting with investors on June 17, CEO Jung Sang-ho explained, “[Delio] will secure as much capital as possible to compensate” and that “users’ withdrawals would come in phases.” No details regarding the specific repayment period, method and amount of damage were disclosed, however.
Delio is one of South Korea’s largest crypto lending firms and claims to hold an estimated $1 billion in Bitcoin $26,848, $200 million in Ether $1,727 and approximately $8.1 billion in altcoins. The firm entrusted a sizable portion of clients’ funds to fellow South Korean crypto yield platform Haru Invest.
- Australian Data Center Startup Arkon Expands to U.S. With $26M in Fresh Funding
Arkon Energy, a data center infrastructure provider based in Melbourne, Australia, is expanding to the U.S. with the acquisition of a site in Hannibal, Ohio.
The company, which operates data centers that host bitcoin mining equipment, also raised $26 million in fresh capital from Sandton Capital Partners, which it intends to use to fund an “aggressive expansion” into North America, according to an announcement shared with CoinDesk on Tuesday. That’s on top of the $28 million it raised in November, when it bought Hydrokraft AS, a renewable energy-based data center in Norway.
The acquisition is likely to be “the first of several” over the next year, CEO Joshua Payne said in the statement.
https://www.coindesk.com/business/2023/06/20/australian-data-center-startup-arkon-expands-to-us-with-26m-in-fresh-funding/
- Bitcoin Network Gears Up for Fourth Surge in Mining Difficulty Amid Record Highs and Unwavering Miners
In just eight days, the Bitcoin network is poised to readjust the difficulty encountered by miners, and once more, an increase is on the horizon. Over the course of three successive adjustments since May 18, 2023, the difficulty has swelled by 8.8%.
Currently standing at an unprecedented 52.35 trillion, the total difficulty has reached an all-time high (ATH). Coinciding with this milestone, the network’s hashrate also hit a new ATH of 516.61 exahash per second (EH/s) on June 11, at block height 793,868.
Throughout the past 2,016 blocks, the hashrate has maintained a steady average of 382.7 EH/s, while over the past 90 days, it settled at approximately 356.2 EH/s. Projections indicate that around June 27, the difficulty is set to experience an estimated boost of 2.1% to 2.33%.
- Binance Set to Integrate Bitcoin Lightning Network for Deposits and Withdrawals
Crypto exchange Binance has started running Lightning nodes ahead of supporting Bitcoin’s Lightning Network for deposits and withdrawals.
Binance’s official Twitter account confirmed Tuesday Morning saying, “Yes – that’s us!” after some “eagle-eyed users” spotted the exchange’s Lightning Network nodes. Binance had first signaled the addition of Lightning Network support on May 8.
In a Twitter post this morning, Binance noted that “still more tech work needs to be done” before it can support Lightning Network payments. The exchange responded to Decrypt’s enquiry about its expected timeline for launch, saying, “We don’t have it yet.”
- 31% of Young Aussies Hold Crypto Despite Being ‘risk Averse’ — ASX Survey
Despite seeing themselves as more “risk averse” than their older counterparts, nearly a third of all young Australian investors hold or have traded cryptocurrencies over the last year, a new study has found.
In an Australian investor study from the Australian Securities Exchange (ASX), 46% of “next generation investors” — the report’s terminology for investors aged 18 to 24 — described themselves as preferring “stable returns” — yet 31% of them invested substantially in crypto.
“The apparent financial conservatism of younger investors is at odds with their level of investment in cryptocurrency,” the report wrote.
Researchers said the reason that younger people invested in crypto boiled down to a desire to do things differently from their parents combined with the observation that “many of the 1.2 million new investors who’ve taken up investing since 2020 are tech-savvy and connected to social media.”
https://www.binance.com/en/feed/post/669995
- UK government moves forward on financial markets bill for potential regulation of crypto
Lawmakers in the upper house of the Parliament of the United Kingdom are moving forward with legislation that could help support the adoption of crypto in the country.
In a meeting of the U.K. Parliament’s House of Lords on June 19, many members advocated for the passage of the Financial Services and Markets Bill — legislation aimed at strengthening the country’s financial services industry. The bill went through a third reading in the House of Lords, one of the final stages in passage before considering any additional amendments and being signed into law.
According to lawmakers, the June 19 proceedings were part of a plan to “tidy up” the bill in an effort “to ensure it is effectual.” It will go back to the lower house of the U.K. Parliament, the House of Commons, where members can consider any changes proposed by the upper house.
https://cointelegraph.com/news/uk-government-financial-markets-bill-crypto-regulation
