ZECUSD Zcash

Bitcoin recovers after a drop due to leveraged liquidations

Bitcoin (COIN:BTCUSD) has shown a slight recovery, trading just above $44,000, after dropping by up to 7% on Wednesday due to leveraged liquidations. Increased leverage and a non-consensus report from Matrixport contributed to the cascade liquidation, resulting in the elimination of nearly $560 million in long derivative positions. Other cryptocurrencies, including Solana (COIN:SOLUSD), Ethereum (COIN:ETHUSD), and Cardano (COIN:ADAUSD), have also stabilized after significant drops. ” $44,000. That’s the point chosen by Smart Money to distribute their sales. The financial volume grows drastically whenever we touch that region. These are the big market players selling to the high demand of small investors there, who are desperate to buy fearing that BTC will skyrocket again,” commented Bitget analyst Fernando Pereira.

Grayscale negotiates with JPMorgan and Goldman Sachs for Bitcoin ETF

Grayscale Investments and VanEck, investment management firms focused on ETFs and cryptocurrencies, have taken a significant step by filing Form 8-A, signaling progress in creating a spot Bitcoin exchange-traded fund (ETF). Grayscale aims to convert its GBTC fund (USOTC:GBTC) into a spot Bitcoin ETF following a recent legal victory. The SEC is expected to decide soon on the approval of such ETFs, with issuers finalizing details like creation and redemption models and the appointment of authorized participants. Grayscale is discussing with JPMorgan (NYSE:JPM) and Goldman Sachs (NYSE:GS) the possibility of them becoming authorized participants in their proposed Bitcoin ETF. These participants play a vital role in creating and redeeming fund shares, ensuring the alignment of the ETF’s stock price with its underlying assets, and providing liquidity.

Receipts Depositary Corporation announces SEC-exempt Bitcoin DRs

Receipts Depositary Corporation, backed by Franklin Templeton (TG:EIGC), plans to launch a Bitcoin-based security product (COIN:BTCUSD) exempt from SEC registration, targeting qualified institutional buyers. Bitcoin DRs follow the structure of American Depositary Receipts and will be issued in the coming weeks. Custody will be held by Anchorage Digital Bank, ensuring complete security of the bitcoins, without risk of lending, mortgaging, or pledging.

Visa introduces innovative rewards program for virtual spaces

Visa (NYSE:V) has launched a new rewards program focused on virtual spaces, offering experiences such as gamified giveaways and augmented reality treasure hunts. The Web3 Loyalty Engagement solution aims to connect brands with consumers, enabling them to earn loyalty points in innovative ways. The initiative reflects consumers’ desire for personalized interactions and rewards for active engagement with brands, not just for transactions. Visa collaborated with SmartMedia Technologies to develop this platform, which includes a digital wallet for rewards in virtual, digital, and real-world experiences.

First tokenized fund receives AA rating from Moody’s

Moody’s (NYSE:MCO) has rated the SGD Delta Fund, the first tokenized fund to use Standard Chartered’s (LSE:STAN) SC Ventures Libeara tokenization platform, with an AA rating. Despite the underlying assets being of AAA quality, the rating reflects the risks associated with the fund manager’s inexperience in managing similar investments. The fund, issued by Singapore’s FundBridge Capital, will invest in Singapore government bonds and issue tokenized units on the Ethereum and Stellar blockchains, increasing transparency and facilitating exchange among authorized investors.

SHIB conducts massive token burn

The Shiba Inu (COIN:SHIBUSD) community burned over 12 million SHIB tokens, increasing the burn rate to 300%. The action, taken on January 2, 2024, aims to control inflation and boost investor value. This effort follows the example of Vitalik Buterin, co-founder of Ethereum (COIN:ETHUSD), who burned 90% of the SHIB tokens sent to him, resulting in a 40% increase in the price of SHIB. The SHIB community is also exploring new initiatives, such as NFT projects, to drive adoption. Meanwhile, rival memecoin FLOKI (COIN:FLOKIUSD) saw a daily burn rate of 600%.

DOGE falls after trend break

The price of Dogecoin (COIN:DOGEUSD) fell yesterday, continuing its downward trend since December 2023. Despite a successful breakout of the descending resistance trendline in November 2023, DOGE now faces uncertainty. The weekly Relative Strength Index (RSI) suggests a weakening trend, while the daily RSI has fallen below 50, indicating a possible bearish trend. Currently, DOGE is oscillating within a descending parallel channel. The future direction of Dogecoin’s price will depend on whether it can hold above the $0.075 support or break through the $0.100 resistance. At the time of writing, DOGE was up 2.45% at $0.084070.

Ark Invest continues selling Coinbase shares

Cathie Wood’s Ark Invest has continued to sell Coinbase Global Inc. (NASDAQ:COIN) shares, disposing of another 166,183 shares valued at $25.3 million on Wednesday. This move is part of a series of recent Coinbase sales by Ark Invest, totaling over $200 million in recent weeks. The sales come in a context where Coinbase, one of the leading cryptocurrency exchanges in the United States, has played a significant role as a custodian of cryptographic assets for traditional financial institutions, including BlackRock.

Binance considers delisting privacy coins, including Zcash and Monero

Binance, the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchange, is evaluating the removal of three privacy coins, Zcash (COIN:ZECUSD), Monero (COIN:XMRUSD), and Horizen (COIN:ZENUSD), potentially due to no longer meeting listing criteria. The exchange has tagged these tokens with a “monitoring label” due to higher risks and volatility. This has negatively impacted the privacy coin sector and the prices of these assets. Additionally, Binance now requires users to complete questionnaires every 90 days to understand the risks associated with these assets. The decision follows a trend of removing privacy coins on other platforms due to regulatory concerns.

Arbitrum Orbit adds support for ERC-20 tokens as gas

Arbitrum Orbit, a Layer 3 blockchain development platform on Ethereum Layer 2, now supports custom gas tokens like ERC-20 for transaction fees. This allows Orbit chains (COIN:ORCUSD) to create utility for their own tokens and expand their ecosystems. The functionality, which previously only accepted Ether, benefits projects like Xai Gaming, which already plans to use custom gas tokens. This development aims to reduce friction for end users, especially in applications like web3 games.

Coinbase UK implements risk assessment for users under new FCA rules

Coinbase UK is requiring its users to complete a risk acknowledgment form to comply with new FCA regulations on financial promotions, effective from January 8. Users must identify their investor type and acknowledge the high risks of cryptocurrency investments. This action follows regulatory efforts in the UK to protect investors. Other exchanges, such as OKX, have adopted similar measures. However, Coinbase (NASDAQ:COIN) users have reported difficulties and dissatisfaction with the process, facing technical issues and unfavorable comparisons with other platforms.

Huobi Korea ceases operations amid market challenges

Huobi Korea, a South Korean cryptocurrency exchange, has announced that it will cease its services on January 29 due to challenges in the business environment. The platform, which separated from HTX (formerly Huobi Global) in 2023, will allow users to withdraw their funds after closure. This closure follows similar trends of other smaller exchanges in South Korea, such as Cashierest and Coinbit. Huobi Korea is one of many exchanges facing regulatory challenges in the country, where five major platforms dominate the market.

South Korea proposes banning the use of credit cards to buy cryptocurrencies

The South Korean Financial Services Commission (FSC) suggests prohibiting the use of credit cards to purchase cryptocurrencies to prevent illegal outflows of national funds and money laundering. The proposal, open for comments until February 13, includes expanding prohibited payments to include cryptocurrency exchanges. Additionally, the FSC recently proposed rules to protect exchange users, such as storing 80% of deposits in cold wallets and charging fees for deposit usage.

India’s Digital Rupee reaches 1 million transactions in a day with bank support

The Reserve Bank of India’s central bank digital currency, the digital rupee, recorded one million transactions in a single day, in part due to active participation from banks. State-owned and private banks were encouraged to use the digital currency for salary deposits and benefits, contributing to this milestone. The RBI is conducting CBDC pilots in both retail and wholesale sectors, with the retail pilot active in more than 15 cities. The daily transaction average is still low, but this event highlights a concentrated effort to increase the adoption of the digital rupee.

YouTube removes Solana co-founder’s deepfake amid rising scams

YouTube deleted a deepfake video of Solana (COIN:SOLUSD) co-founder Anatoly Yakovenko after the Solana Foundation warned of the growing scams attempting to capitalize on the recent increase in Solana’s total value locked (TVL). The video falsely showed Yakovenko thanking the community with a QR Code toast and was removed only after media coverage. The incident highlights increasing challenges in detecting and removing deepfakes, especially in financial and investment contexts, where they can have serious consequences.

Gamma Strategies DeFi Protocol suffers $3.4 million attack

The decentralized finance (DeFi) protocol Gamma Strategies experienced an attack resulting in a loss of approximately $3.4 million. The hacker extracted over 1,500 Ether by exploiting a critical vulnerability in the protocol’s accounting mechanism. In response, the team disabled deposits in all public DeFi vaults but kept withdrawals active for users. Gamma Strategies is a decentralized asset management protocol operating on Ethereum and other blockchains.

dYdX experiences $9 million attack and identifies the attacker

Decentralized exchange dYdX has published a post-mortem on an attack on its v3 platform in November, resulting in a $9 million loss from its insurance fund. The attacker opened long positions on yearn.finance (COIN:YFIUSD) and manipulated the price of the YFI token, causing a 215% increase. Following the YFI price collapse, dYdX’s insurance fund compensated for the losses. The platform identified the attacker and is exploring legal actions, in addition to updating its security measures to prevent similar future attacks.