- Morgan Stanley: GPU Demand Likely to Slow if Ethereum Moves to Proof-of-Stake
If Ethereum moves to proof-of-stake (PoS), as planned, it will remove the need for miners, slow demand for graphics processing units (GPUs) and dramatically reduce energy requirements, Morgan Stanley said in a report Monday.
Ethereum developers are hoping that the Merge will happen by September, and potentially as early as August, but given previous delays, it would not be surprising if this were pushed out to early next year, the report said.
Crypto mining has had a massive impact on the gaming graphics market in the past 18 months, the bank said, driving an estimated 14% of revenue in 2021, but at the same time “substantially contributing to a major graphic shortage which boosted overall mix and pricing.”
GPU demand should slow but Nvidia (NVDA) is less exposed to cryptocurrency mining demand than it was in 2017-19, the note said.
In addition, demand from crypto mining, which contributed to a shortage of graphics cards, started winding down in the first half of the year, the bank noted.
- ApeCoin Gains 22% After Debut of Bored Ape-Themed Video With Eminem and Snoop Dogg
After a hectic week featuring star-studded live events, which culminated in a lawsuit against a vocal critic, Bored Ape Yacht Club holders appear to have come out on top.
The prominent NFT collection’s native Ethereum token, ApeCoin, climbed over 22% overnight, according to data from CoinGecko. As of this writing, the coin was worth $4.92, down slightly from its morning peak of $5.26. In the last week, ApeCoin has risen some 35%.
The price increase signifies a minor rebound from what has otherwise been a disproportionately brutal month for the token, which recently fell some 65% at a pace distinct even for the current bear market.
Just in late April, ApeCoin’s price hit an all-time-high of almost $27 in anticipation of virtual land NFT sales for the BAYC’s metaverse game, Otherside. ApeCoin can be used by holders to vote on ApeCoin DAO governance proposals.
- Ethereum Price Rise and Stability Pulls Broader Crypto Market to $1 Trillion
The broader cryptocurrency market is now eyeing to regain the $1 trillion valuation.
After a solid correction earlier in June, altcoins posed a good recovery led by Ethereum (ETH).
The ETH price is more than 13% on the weekly chart as the world’s second-largest crypto finds strong support at its 200-week moving average i.e. $1,200. As of press time, ETH is trading 1.2% down at a price of $1219 with a market cap of $148 billion.
The ETH price recovery comes amid sizeable short liquidations taking place in the world’s second-largest crypto. As per data on CoinGlass, more than $60 million in short liquidations took place last Friday.
In a note to clients, Genesis Trading’s Ainsley To, Gordon Grant and Noelle Acheson wrote:
A major options expiration on Friday had been watched as a potential source of volatility. However, “short risk cleared surprisingly efficiently” for Ether amid “perhaps unexpected stability”.
https://www.binance.com/en/news/top/7138548
- Swiss National Bank exec: Regulators may favor centralized stablecoins after Terra crisis
Swiss National Bank (SNB) deputy head Thomas Muser talked to Cointelegraph editor Aaron Wood and discussed the ongoing trends in central bank digital currencies (CBDCs), stablecoins, and regulations, during the recently concluded European Blockchain Convention (EBC) 2022
Talking about the innovation and adoption of private stablecoins and plans of central banks regarding the CBDC launch, Moser said both could co-exist. He said that CBDC’s function would be very basic and private stablecoin issuers can add services on top of them to meet retail customers’ needs.
When asked about the recent collapse of the Terra’s UST and its subsequent impact on regulations, Moser said that the recent spiral crash of the Terra and its decentralized algorithmic stablecoin UST could have a lasting impact on the regulators.
He added that regulators may be forced to favor centralized stablecoins over decentralized ones although not every decentralized stablecoin is like UST. He said:
“My fear is that that, that people will throw all decentralized stable currency in the same kind of category, which is not true, you know, so there’s a danger. I think that regulation will favor centralized stablecoins.”
- SEC Chair Gensler Proposes ‘One Rule Book’ Crypto Regulation
SEC Chairman Gary Gensler has proposed “one rule book” for the regulation of crypto, the Financial Times reported Friday. He is looking to strike agreements with other financial regulators, including the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), to avoid gaps in the oversight of the crypto sector. He told the publication:
I’m talking about one rule book on the exchange.
The SEC chief elaborated that the rule should protect investors against fraud, front-running, and manipulation, in addition to providing transparency over order books.
The rule book will apply to “all trading regardless of the pair — [be it] a security token versus security token, security token versus commodity token, commodity token versus commodity token,” Gensler described.
The SEC boss revealed that he is working on a “memorandum of understanding” with his counterparts at the CFTC, which would be a formal deal to ensure that trading in digital assets has adequate safeguards and transparency. He explained that if a commodity token is listed on a platform overseen by the securities regulator, the SEC would “send that information over to the CFTC.”
Gensler opined:
By getting that market integrity envelope, one rule book on an exchange will really help the public. If this industry is going to take any path forward, it will build some better trust in these markets.
https://news.bitcoin.com/sec-chair-gensler-proposes-one-rule-book-crypto-regulation/
- Ethereum Lending Protocol XCarnival Hit With $3.8M Exploit, Recovers 50%
XCarnival, an Ethereum-based protocol that acts as a lending aggregator for NFTs, has recovered 50% of the $3.8 million lost in an exploit.
A hacker exploited a smart-contract flaw that allowed a pledged asset to also be used as collateral, in this case a Bored Ape Yacht Club non-fungible token (NFT).
The vulnerability was exploited in multiple transactions over a short period of time at 12:03 UTC on June 26, with the hacker siphoning out 3,087 ether (ETH).
“XCarnival was attacked on June 26, 2022 and suspended part of the protocol,” the Singapore-based company wrote on Twitter.
“Currently our smart contract has been suspended, all deposit and borrowing actions are temporarily not supported, please stay tuned, we will confirm the situation as soon as possible,” it said.
The XCarnival team offered the hacker a 1,500 ETH bounty, an offer has seemingly been accepted after a wallet tagged as “XCarnival Exploiter” sent 1,467 ETH to the affected wallet, according to Etherscan.
- Australian Crypto Firm Banxa to Cut Staff by 30% Citing ‘Another Crypto Winter’
Banxa, a crypto payments operator, announced that it would lay off 30% of its staff to reduce operating costs amid the ongoing bear market.
“Banxa must take decisive actions to reduce costs now, or else our company won’t be able to succeed over the long run,” wrote Holger Arians, Banxa’s CEO, in a letter to employees as reported by The Australian Financial Review.
The Australian firm is a global on-and-off ramp solution, facilitating conversions between digital assets (including cryptocurrencies and NFTs) and fiat currencies.
“Like many others in our industry [we] are anticipating another crypto winter, with trading volumes declining significantly,” said the CEO. “We saw Banxa’s market capitalization nearly halve in a matter of days, and the forecast is that these conditions will most likely continue for another 12 months.”
https://decrypt.co/103891/australian-crypto-firm-banxa-cut-staff-30-citing-another-crypto-winter
- Dogecoin Jumps 9% as Trading Volume Surges
Dogecoin (DOGE), the popular meme coin, rose nearly 10% over the past day. DOGE is currently trading at $0.077 according to data from CoinMarketCap.
DOGE, the tenth-largest cryptocurrency with a market capitalization of $10.2 billion, is now well ahead of Polkadot (DOT).
There has been a sharp rise in the coin’s trading volume across major cryptocurrency exchanges too. The cryptocurrency’s trading volume hovers around $1.1 billion over the past 24 hours, up 148% from the previous trading day.
Despite today’s double-digit rise, DOGE is still down 89% from its all-time high of $0.73 recorded in May 2021.
https://decrypt.co/103886/dogecoin-jumps-trading-volume-surges
- Binance Launches Platform For Institutional And VIP Investors
Binance is now launching a flagship platform for VIP and Institutional users.
This flagship platform is called “Binance Institutional”, which is an effort to upgrade its institutional offerings and services
This VIP service is offering a host of attributes such as trading services directed at institutions, crypto platforms, high-net worth individuals, family offices, hedge funds, asset managers and also crypto miners. The services are also customized according to the needs of various different institutions.
Features Of ‘Binance Institutional’
Binance Institutional is an attempt to upgrade the services offered to the institutions. The crypto exchange has directed the offering which includes asset managers, corporates, liquidity providers and also proprietary trading firms, and so on.
https://www.binance.com/en/news/top/7138417
- Swiss National Bank exec: Regulators may favor centralized stablecoins after Terra crisis
Swiss National Bank (SNB) deputy head Thomas Muser talked to Cointelegraph editor Aaron Wood and discussed the ongoing trends in central bank digital currencies (CBDCs), stablecoins, and regulations, during the recently concluded European Blockchain Convention (EBC) 2022.
Talking about the innovation and adoption of private stablecoins and plans of central banks regarding the CBDC launch, Moser said both could co-exist. He said that CBDC’s function would be very basic and private stablecoin issuers can add services on top of them to meet retail customers’ needs.
When asked about the recent collapse of the Terra’s UST and its subsequent impact on regulations, Moser said that the recent spiral crash of the Terra and its decentralized algorithmic stablecoin UST could have a lasting impact on the regulators.
