Weekly Headlines 2023.5 W2
“Don’t think of it as buying Bitcoin. Think of it as giving yourself the ability to plan for the future.” – Jimmy Song
Weekly News Report:
News
1. Binance Announces Exit from Canada, Citing Regulatory Tensions
– Binance has announced that it would cease operations in Canada, citing the challenging regulatory environment. Binance said new guidance related to stablecoins and investor limits prompted the exit.
2. Do Kwon Set to Be Released on Bail in Montenegro Travel Document Forgery Case
– Bail conditions prohibit Kwon from leaving his apartment in the country as the trial continues.
3. Ethereum Resumes Finalizing Blocks after Second Performance Hiccup in 24 Hours
– The Ethereum blockchain suffered from a technical issue on Friday that caused the network to stop finalizing blocks for over an hour, the second such outage in the past 24 hours.
4. Ethereum Mainnet Was Unable to Fully Finalize Transactions for 25 Minutes
– The Ethereum mainnet was unable to fully confirm transactions for about 25 minutes on Thursday, with blocks getting proposed but not being finalized.
5. Elon Musk announces he will step down as Twitter CEO
– The soon-to-be-former CEO will become Twitter’s executive chair and chief technology officer, overseeing product, software and system operations.
6. Sam Bankman-Fried’s Ties to George Santos Are Just the Beginning
– Donations to the lying congressman were just a grace note in FTX’s symphony of alleged corruption.
7. U.S. Internal Revenue Service Files Claims Worth $44 Billion Against FTX Bankruptcy
– The largest of the claims includes a $20.4B claim against Alameda Research LLC, which details nearly $20B in unpaid partnership taxes.
8. $176M of Do Kwon’s assets are frozen: Report
– On May 10, local news outlet Hankyung reported that Do Kwon, co-founder and former CEO of Terraform Labs, had over 233.3B Korean won ($176M) in personal assets frozen as part of ongoing criminal proceedings.
9. Bankrupt Crypto Exchange QuadrigaCX Will Start Interim Distribution for Some Users, EY Says
– Bankrupt Canadian crypto exchange QuadrigaCX will start the interim distribution for some users, said EY, which is acting as the trustee for the firm’s estate.
10. Bitcoin takes flight in Liechtenstein: Minister proposes government services paid in crypto
– Prime Minister Daniel Risch of Liechtenstein told local papers that Bitcoin is set to play a growing role in government services payments.
11. Nigeria goes blockchain: Policy could impact digital identity
– Nigeria’s crypto community celebrates the approval of the National Blockchain Policy, set to impact governance, digital identity management and e-payments.
12. Binance halts Bitcoin withdrawals for the second time in 12 hours
– The crypto exchange said it temporarily closed BTC withdrawals due to a “large volume of pending transactions.”
13. Paxful restarts marketplace operations for the first time since April
– Amid the suspended service, Ray Youssef said he had made his “final act” as CEO after helping unfreeze 88% of certain users’ accounts.
14. U.S. Crypto Exchange Bittrex Files for Bankruptcy in Delaware
– Crypto exchange Bittrex has filed for bankruptcy in the U.S. state of Delaware on Monday, months after announcing it would wind down operations in the country and weeks after being sued by the SEC.
15. Bitcoin Network Congestion Causes Binance to Pause Withdrawals
– Binance temporarily paused bitcoin withdrawals Sunday morning U.S. time as the Bitcoin blockchain became overwhelmed with pending transactions and sky-high fees. It has now resumed withdrawals, but problems continue to linger for the Bitcoin protocol.
Institution
1. EU Crypto Tax Plans Include NFTs, Foreign Companies, Draft Text Shows
– Laws set to be agreed next week would require crypto companies to register with tax authorities, even if they’re based outside the bloc or offering non-fungible tokens.
2. Bitcoin trading up 80% at DBS Bank due to crypto crashes in 2022, says exec
– DBS Bank’s crypto trading platform has been attracting more institutional investors due to crypto exchanges that collapsed last year.
3. Hungarian Central Bank Sees No Imminent Need for e-Forint
– The EU member is still trying out options for a central bank digital currency that could help the unbanked.
4. Digital Asset Will Start Global Blockchain Network With Deloitte, Goldman Sachs and Others
– Financial technology company Digital Asset will start a privacy-enabled interoperable blockchain network designed to provide a decentralized infrastructure for institutional clients, the firm announced on Tuesday. Participants of the network, which is called the Canton Network, include BNP, Deloitte, CBOE, GS, BR, S&P Global, and MSFT, among many others.
5. ‘No other options’: Hong Kong moving forward with crypto licensing, FinTech chair says
– Neil Tan, chair of the FinTech Association of Hong Kong, says the opening of the financial industry to digital assets is “just a natural progression.”
6. Concern over banking crisis reaches levels unseen since 2008 — Poll
– According to a recent poll from Gallup, nearly half of Americans are concerned about the safety of their money deposited with banks.
7. Canada’s central bank asks citizens what they want in a digital dollar
– Canadians are being asked to submit what features they want to be included in a potential digital Canadian dollar, with the country’s central bank opening a consultation to the public. On May 8, the Bank of Canada launched a public consultation that will run until June 19, noting it’s exploring a virtual loonie as “the world becomes increasingly digital.”
Market
1. Bakkt delists majority of tokens from recently acquired Apex Crypto platform
– The delisting included major tokens used in DeFi; the company said it was following “up-to-date regulatory guidance.”
2. Bitcoin Loses 10% on the Week as Memecoins Tumble
– BTC has plunged more than 10% over the past 7 days to a two-month low just above $26,000 alongside a sizable reversal in the previous red-hot memecoin sector. Among the memecoins sliding was PEPE, which lost over 60% over the last 7 days.
3. Milady memecoin surges 5,250% after Musk tweet, exchange listings
– The market capitalization of the LADYS token has surpassed $140 million after surging in popularity.
4. UAE infrastructure for crypto is more ‘business-friendly’ than the US, says exec
– Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong and Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse also expressed their sentiments over U.S. regulation at the Dubai Fintech Summit.
5. Circle reportedly adjusts USDC reserves to avoid US default risk
– The world’s second-largest stablecoin issuer wants to reduce its exposure to potential United States debt defaults.
6. Franklin Templeton to List Blockchain Fund Targeting Institutional Investors
– Franklin Templeton, which has some $1.4 trillion in assets under management, plans to add to its crypto market offerings with a second blockchain fund, according to a Wednesday filing with the SEC.
7. Long-Term Bitcoin Holders Boost Their Stash as BTC Prices Decouple From Nasdaq
– Long-term holder wallets are witnessing net accumulation at the fastest pace since October 2021.
8. Crypto Derivatives Market Share Hits All-Time High
– Cryptocurrency derivatives trading volume on centralized exchanges fell in April, but spot trading volume declined even more, pushing the derivatives market share up to a new all-time high.
9. Pepe vs. Doge: How memecoins performed first time hitting $1B market cap
– In a recent Cointelegraph Twitter poll, DOGE was voted as the memecoin that will have had the largest market capitalization by 2025, with PEPE coming in second place.
10. Tether Reports $1.48B Profit in Q1, Reveals Bitcoin, Gold Reserves
– The company’s USDT stablecoin has seen rapid growth this year as the U.S. banking crisis hit rivals. Stablecoin issuer Tether reported $1.48 billion in net profit for the first quarter of the year, double the previous quarter’s result, according to its latest attestation published Wednesday.
11. Urbit, a Network Older and Weirder Than Bitcoin, Finally Turns Toward Growth
– The peer-to-peer network started in 2002 says it’s taking on “MEGACORP,” much in the same vein as many blockchain networks. A bit more fun is the “secret code names” that users are assigned.
12. PayPal’s crypto holdings increased by 56% in Q1 2023 to nearly $1B
– The lion’s share of the fintech’s held cryptocurrency assets lies in BTC and ETH with $499M and $362M, respectively — up more than 56% since Q4 2022.
13. BRC-20 tokens surpass $1B market cap as wallet providers prepare integration
– The growth in BRC-20 tokens comes just two months after the creation of the Bitcoin token fungibility protocol.
14. 32% of home offices invest in digital assets — Goldman Sachs
– While the interest in crypto investments was rising last year among home offices, 2023 saw a massive decline in investors’ certainty about the digital assets market.
15. Ether Staking Deposits Top Withdrawals for First Time Since Shapella Upgrade
– The divergence comes amid a meme coin frenzy that has pushed up fees on the Ethereum blockchain.
16. Galaxy Digital Posts $134M First-Quarter Profit on Strong Showing for Crypto Market
– The figure compares with a net loss of $111.7 million in the year-earlier period and $288M in the fourth quarter.
17. Africa Moves to Lightning, Stablecoins as Bitcoin Transaction Fees Soar
– Those already using stablecoins and lightning transactions are not affected, but for many in Africa, higher bitcoin fees are a problem.
18. Crypto remains hopeful as the market moves sideways: Report
– BTC continues to trade in a narrow range, and memecoins steal the limelight from NFTs as views on the macroeconomic outlook diverge.
19. Estonia’s Registered Crypto Firms Drop 80% as Tough New Checks Reveal ‘Suspicious’ Behavior
– Regulators in the tech-friendly nation say they’ll now return to business-as-usual monitoring after money laundering fears led it to take a tough line.
20. Block Demand Leads to Fee Spike as Bitcoin-Based Meme Coins Flourish
– Over 11,000 tokens have been issued and traded on the Bitcoin network, data shows. Fees on the Bitcoin blockchain have surged to two-year highs as the BRC-20 tokens and the rising popularity of the Ordinals protocol drives demand for block space.
21. Long-Term Bitcoin Holders Add to Their Holdings, Even as Prices Retrace
– As longer-term bitcoin supply increases, the CoinDesk Bitcoin Trend Indicator shows a market in an uptrend, despite recent price declines.
22. Ordinals Upend Bitcoin Mining, Pushing Transaction Fees Above Mining Reward for First Time in Years
– Several mining pools such as Luxor Technologies and AntPool mined blocks on Monday where fees exceeded Bitcoin’s block subsidy of 6.25 BTC.
NFT
1. Musk’s Milady Meme, Opening Up Ordinals
– Miladys NFTs saw a brief pump after Elon Musk tweeted about them and Binance is making it easier for people to buy Bitcoin NFTs.
2. LG Electronics files patent for NFT-trading TV
– The information was published on WIPO’s global database for intellectual property on May 11, 18 months after LG filed its application.
3. Moonbirds Partners with Spotify to Enable NFT Music Unlocks
– The integration of Spotify with NFT projects including Moonbirds has helped its stock rally more than 80 percent YTD.
4. Fueled by artistic passion, NFTs have found a permanent home in the art world
– NFTs have democratized access to the art world in unprecedented ways, unlocking new opportunities for artists who might otherwise not have been able to make a living from their passions.
5. Elon Musk Tweets a Milady NFT, Floor Price Soars on OpenSea
– The Twitter CEO shared a gif of the counterculture NFT declaring, “There is no meme, I love you,” shooting the collection to the top trending spot on the marketplace.
6. From FOMO to JOMO: Web3 Mental Health Collective Peace Inside Live Launches NFT Collection
– The collection, which encourages holders to practice the “Joy of Missing Out,” will donate primary sale profits across five mental health organizations in honor of May’s Mental Health Awareness Month.
7. Binance’s NFT Marketplace Adds Support for Bitcoin NFTs
– Binance’s NFT marketplace said Tuesday it’s planning to add support for Ordinals, or Bitcoin NFTs later in May, though an exact date was not announced.
May 12, 2023