- Bitcoin Rallies to $29K; Cardano Leads Gains Among Crypto Majors
Bitcoin (BTC) rose to $29,000 in European morning hours on Wednesday, with some investors pointing to expectations the Federal Reserve will inject money into the economy in the coming weeks after signs of yet another U.S. bank collapse. It was last at that level April 20, TradingView data show.
Shares of First Republic Bank (FRC) tumbled 50% on Tuesday after the San Francisco-based lender revealed a dramatic slump in deposits. Investors withdrew over $100 billion from the bank this quarter, prompting concerns it will become the third bank to fail, joining Silicon Valley Bank and Signature Bank.
The slide stressed U.S. markets, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average losing 1% and tech-heavy Nasdaq 100 dropping almost 2%. In contrast, bitcoin has added 6.4% in the past 24 hours, following safe-haven assets such as gold to reverse nearly all losses from last week’s sell-off.
- Binance US Pulls the Plug: Voyager Purchase Deal Falls Through
Towards the end of 2022, Binance disclosed that its US subsidiary had entered into a billion-dollar agreement with Voyager Digital Ltd. to acquire its assets. Despite objections from the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), the purchase was allowed to proceed after receiving court approval. However, on April 25, 2023, Voyager revealed that the deal was no longer moving forward.
“Today we received a letter from Binance US terminating the asset purchase agreement. While this development is disappointing, our Chapter 11 plan allows for direct distribution of cash and crypto to customers (a “toggle option”) via the Voyager platform,” Voyager announced via Twitter.
https://news.bitcoin.com/binance-us-pulls-the-plug-voyager-purchase-deal-falls-through/
- Bitcoin Whitepaper Removed from Apple Computers Following Belated Discovery
A digital copy of the original Bitcoin whitepaper that had been hidden on Macintosh computers for more than five years is not part of an upcoming operating system update from Apple, AppleInsider reported Tuesday.
The late discovery of the PDF document went viral three weeks ago, and it represented only the latest in a long line of easter eggs that Apple (or its employees, more likely) have planted over the last several decades. It seems to have gone unnoticed by Apple’s millions of users until 2020, when designer Joshua Dickens posted about it to Twitter. Someone who read his post started a thread in Apple’s support forums in April 2021.
- Litecoin Up More Than 3% in 24 Hours
Litecoin’s (CRYPTO: LTC) price has increased 3.18% over the past 24 hours to $90.33, which is in the opposite direction of its trend over the past week, where it has experienced a 11.0% loss, moving from $100.52 to its current price. As it stands right now, the coin’s all-time high is $410.26.
The chart below compares the price movement and volatility for Litecoin over the past 24 hours (left) to its price movement over the past week (right). The gray bands are Bollinger Bands, measuring the volatility for both the daily and weekly price movements. The wider the bands are, or the larger the gray area is at any given moment, the larger the volatility.
The trading volume for the coin has tumbled 24.0% over the past week while the circulating supply of the coin has risen 0.04%. This brings the circulating supply to 72.78 million, which makes up an estimated 86.65% of its max supply of 84.00 million. According to our data, the current market cap ranking for LTC is #13 at $6.57 billion.
https://www.binance.com/en/news/flash/7523589
- Bitcoin at banks: Raiffeisenlandesbank to offer crypto investment services
Raiffeisenlandesbank Niederösterreich-Wien (RLB NÖ-Wien), an Austrian cooperative banking company founded in 1900, is preparing to launch crypto investment services in collaboration with the Austrian crypto firm Bitpanda.
According to a joint announcement on April 26, RLB NÖ-Wien plans to provide its customers with a broad range of cryptocurrencies through Bitpanda’s Software as a service (SaaS) offering. Crypto investment will be featured alongside investment services for stocks, exchange-traded funds, precious metals and commodities.
“The deal with Bitpanda aims to expand our product range with an innovative, secure facet and enable all customers to easily accumulate wealth,” RLB NÖ-Wien CEO Michael Höllerer said.
- TS Imagine to Bolster Crypto Trading Offering Through Deutsche Boerse Unit
TS Imagine, which provides trading services to institutional clients, is working with Crypto Finance, a unit of Deutsche Boerse, to bolster its cryptocurrency offering.
TS Imagine provides trading, portfolio and risk management services to institutional investors such as private banks. It will now make use of Crypto Finance’s crypto trading infrastructure to enhance its digital asset capabilities, according to an emailed announcement on Wednesday.
The aim of Crypto Finance, two-thirds owned by German stock exchange Deutsche Boerse, is to provide financial institutions with the crypto investment services of the sophistication and regulatory oversight that they would be used to in traditional finance. It also recently joined forces with Apex Group to offer institutional-grade crypto products.
- Tether Grows 2.3% as Stablecoin Economy Loses $2.4 Billion in Value Since March 31
On March 31, 2023, the top stablecoins by market capitalization represented $133.63 billion in value, and now the valuation is down to $131.21 billion. A total of $2.4 billion worth of stablecoins has been withdrawn from the stablecoin economy since then. Data reveals that over the past 30 days, USDC, BUSD, DAI, and TUSD have all seen redemptions. Usd coin’s (USDC) circulating supply dropped 10.2% compared to last month, and binance usd (BUSD) fell by 20.6%. Of the top five largest stablecoins, both USDC and BUSD experienced the most redemptions.
The top five stablecoins by market valuation according to coingecko.com on April 25, 2023.
Further, DAI’s circulating supply slipped 9% lower in 30 days and TUSD’s supply decreased by 0.7%. Tether (USDT), however, grew 2.3% since last month, reaching a market capitalization worth $81.39 billion. Tether’s market valuation accounts for 61.65% of the entire stablecoin economy’s $131.21 billion value. While tether’s supply grew by 2.3%, pax dollar (USDP) rose by 33.9% since last month.
- Bitcoin Retakes $29,000 Amid First Republic Bank Uncertainty
Bitcoin hit highs above $29,000 Wednesday morning, amid fears of a new U.S. banking crisis as shares in First Republic Bank tumbled 50%.
The price of Bitcoin hit a high of $29,173, per CoinGecko data, and is currently trading at just under $28,950, up 5.7% on the day. However, Bitcoin has yet to recover fully from its recent slump, and remains down 4.7% on the week.
Shares in the San Francisco-based First Republic Bank nosedived Wednesday morning following a dismal quarterly report in which it reported higher-than-expected withdrawals of over $100 billion in March, raising concerns about the solvency of the regional lender.
https://news.bitcoin.com/biggest-movers-link-jumps-to-6-month-high-ltc-back-above-100/
- UK FCA Wants to Work With the Crypto Industry to Develop Regulation, Executive Says
The U.K.’s Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) wants to work together with crypto firms to shape regulation, Executive Director Sarah Pritchard said at City Week conference in London on Tuesday.
The U.K. has been looking to construct a new regime for “crypto – that one-time symbol of alternative rebellion – (which) has become more widespread,” Pritchard said. In February the U.K. government’s financial arm, the Treasury, launched a crypto consultation where it is seeking feedback from stakeholders on how to regulate the sector.
The FCA is one of the main crypto regulators in the country along with the Treasury and has been registering crypto firms to operate in the country. The consultation set out that the FCA may host a new authorization regime for crypto companies including overseas companies which is “an unchartered territory” for them, Pritchard said. It is also planning on launching a promotions regime for digital assets as well.
https://www.binance.com/en/news/flash/7523320
- Solana Labs’ ChatGPT plugin allows AI to fetch blockchain data
Solana SOL tickers down $23 users will soon be able to interact with the network through an open-source plugin enabled on OpenAI’s artificial intelligence (AI) chatbot, ChatGPT.
The plugin will allow ChatGPT to check wallet balances, transfer Solana-native tokens and purchase nonfungible tokens when OpenAI makes plugins available, according to an April 25 tweet by Solana Labs, the development firm behind the Solana blockchain.
Solana Labs is also encouraging developers to test using the open-source code to retrieve on-chain data that they may be interested in.
The screenshot shared by Solana Labs shows that ChatGPT can retrieve a list of NFTs owned by a particular Solana address, which shares an attached metadata link to the NFT — presumably sourced from Solana Labs’ block explorer.
https://cointelegraph.com/news/solana-labs-chatgpt-plugin-allows-ai-to-fetch-blockchain-data
