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Trademark Tussle: Trader Joe’s Grocery Slaps Lawsuit On DEX Trading Platform

Trader Joe’s, a well-known supermarket chain in the United States, has taken legal action against a decentralized exchange (DEX) platform named Trader Joe, alleging that it has violated federal trademark laws. 

The DEX platform, which operates under the domain name traderjoexyz.com, not only shares the same name as the supermarket but, according to recent reports, also appears to be trying to leverage the supermarket’s established brand and reputation. 

US Supermarket Giant Locks Horns With Trader Joe DEX

Trader Joe’s has gained popularity in the digital realm by initially launching on the Avalanche (AVAX) network and later expanding its presence to BNB Chain, Arbitrum (ARB), and Ethereum (ETH). 

It currently holds over $77 million worth of tokens across various chains and has processed trades amounting to $25 million in September alone. 

However, its success has been overshadowed by a heated dispute regarding the origin of its brand and allegations of fraudulent attempts to misrepresent its origins.

Trader Joe’s supermarket chain has grown increasingly frustrated by the lack of response to its requests to cease the misuse of its trademark. As a result, the matter has escalated internationally, and a complaint was filed with the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) in May 2022 to force the crypto entity to relinquish its domain name.

Furthermore, recently filed court documents in the US District Court for the Central District of California shed light on the proceedings at WIPO. According to these documents, the defendants presented a false narrative that distorted the true origins of “Trader Joe’s.” 

They claimed that the platform was named after the co-founder’s brother, a claim that Trader Joe’s supermarket chain has vehemently denied.

JOE Token Plummets In Value Amidst Legal Battle

Trader Joe DEX has recently seen notable variations in several critical metrics, with shifts in trading volume, market capitalization, revenue, and total value locked.

Over the past 24 hours, Trader Joe’s experienced a decline of 1.68% in its performance. This short-term dip in value has been reflected in the platform’s seven-day performance, with a 3.85% decrease. 

However, despite these recent setbacks, the DEX has managed to maintain relative stability over 30 days, with a modest decline of 1.04%.

Trader Joe

According to Token Terminal data, one of the most striking figures is the platform’s 180-day performance, which shows a significant drop of 60.82%.

Nevertheless, when considering market capitalization, Trader Joe’s DEX boasts a circulating market cap of $90.84 million, indicating its prominence within the DEX ecosystem. 

Moreover, the platform has shown a positive trend, with a recent increase of 2.26%. Total value locked (TVL) is another crucial metric used to assess the health and popularity of a DEX platform. Despite the recent market fluctuations, Trader Joe DEX continues demonstrating a TVL of $78.66 million. 

However, it experienced a decline of 4.54%, suggesting a potential shift in user participation and liquidity within the platform.

Finally, trading volume, an essential measure of a platform’s activity, has witnessed a significant annualized decrease of 18.45%, amounting to $7.61 billion. This decline in trading volume raises concerns about engagement and participation on the Trader Joe DEX platform.

Featured image from Shutterstock chart from TradingView.com 

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How Hamas Lost its Crypto In An Israeli Operation, Binance Supports Security Forces

Israeli law enforcement launched an operation targeting crypto addresses associated with the terrorist group Hamas. The country suffered an attack this past Sunday, leading to deaths and many civilians disappearing.

Binance Crypto Hamas Israel BNB BNBUSDT

Binance And Israel Work Together To Freeze Crypto

A local news media Calculist report confirmed an operation led by the Israeli Police Department and the National Counterterrorism Headquarters, part of the Ministry of Defense. The operation was supported by the world’s largest crypto exchange, Binance.

During the operation, the law enforcement agencies discovered funds raised by the terrorist group via crypto donations. The investigation led the cyber unit from the Israeli Police to the crypto trading venue.

The terrorist group launched the campaign in the past few days. The law enforcement agencies claimed that Hamas used the attention from Sunday’s attack to raise money from radicals and supporters worldwide.

The terrorist group, the report claims, turned to social media platforms to launch the campaign. A spokesperson for the law enforcement agencies told Calculist the following regarding the events:

As the war broke out, Hamas launched a fundraising campaign on social networks, asking the public to deposit crypto into its account. The cyber unit and the NSC have been working immediately to locate and freeze the accounts, assisted by the Crypto Exchange (Binance), to freeze the funds (…).

The report claims that Binance has been aware of Hamas’s operation on its platform. In a separate report from CoinDesk, some data suggests previous cooperation between Binance and Israeli law enforcement.

The company helped Israel to freeze almost 200 accounts connected to Hamas and other terrorist groups. A spokesperson for the crypto exchange told CoinDesk:

Over the past few days, our team has been working in real-time, around the clock to support ongoing efforts to combat terror financing. We are committed to ensuring the safety and security not just of the blockchain ecosystem, but also the global community, through our proactive work.

Following the events of the past Sunday, the conflict between Israel and Hamas escalated. The nation-state declared war on the terrorist organization and appeared to be preparing to increase its offensive on the Gaza Strip in response to the terrorist group.

In this context, the cooperation between Binance and local enforcement seems likely to increase. Israel will fight Hamas across all sectors, including the nascent industry and its related companies and tools.

Cover image from Unsplash, chart from Tradingview

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Crypto Analyst Identifies 6 Overlooked Altcoins That Could Be Due For A Price Surge

With tens of thousands of altcoins circulating the market, crypto investors can easily miss out on the next 100x coin due to it not being on their radar. This is often not the fault of the investor as it can be hard to keep track of so many coins. As a result of this, a Santiment analyst has presented a total of 6 overlooked altcoins that could be primed for a rally.

Crypto Analyst Presents Altcoins Using Network Activity

As pointed out by the crypto analyst in the Santiment post, the altcoins outlined were picked due to an uptick in their network activity. These tokens have been able to stay under the radar but their activities spread across transaction volumes, network growth, and large transaction numbers, among others, have caught attention.

“The extra juicy opportunities lie with projects that maybe haven’t seen any special price decouplings recently, yet have a surge in network growth, or whale transactions and accumulation.” He further added that these projects are “at minimum, likely to have some increased volatility due to extra activity that hasn’t existed on their respective networks in quite some time.”

1 – Bancor (BNT) Emerges Top Of Altcoins List

As outlined in the post, the Bancor Network, a permissionless protocol that caters to open-source DeFi protocols, has seen a notable rise in its network metrics. This spans across high transaction volumes, active addresses, network growth, whale transactions, exchange inflows, and age destroyed (Consumed). This could be a predecessor to a rise in the BNT price.

Bancor BNT

2 – Cartesi (CTSI)

The application-specific rollups Cartesi network which features a Linux runtime has also seen a rise in metrics similar to Bancor that could signal a rise in its native CTSI token. This also spans “High Transaction Volume, Active Addresses, Whale Transactions, Age Destroyed (Consumed)” as pointed out in the post.

Cartesi CTSI

3 – Holo (HOT)

Holo (HOT) on the Holochain allows for Peer-To-Peer (P2P) applications and has made it to this list mainly due to its whale transactions. The Santiment post shows a rise in whale accumulation among addresses holding between $100,000 and $1 million, as well as high whale transactions, exchange inflows, and age destroyed (Consumed).

Holo (HOT)

4 – Powerpool (CVP)

The Powerpool (CVP) protocol is a governance-facing protocol that has seen similar trends to Holo (HOT) above. Just like Holo, there has been accumulation among whales holding $100,000 to $1 million. “High Active Addresses, Network Growth, $100K-$1M Whale Accumulation, Age Destroyed (Consumed),” the analyst writes.

PowerPool (CVP) Altcoins

5 – Storj (STORJ)

The Storj (STORJ) project is one that aims to provide cleaner storage services, allowing organizations to cut down their carbon footprint as well as reduce their cloud storage costs. But this under-the-radar altcoin has made it into the list. The analyst points to “High Transaction Volume, Active Addresses, Network Growth, Whale Accumulation, Age Destroyed (Consumed)” as shown in the chart.

Storj (STORJ)

6 – UniLend (UFT)

Unilend (UFT), a protocol that brings all decentralized finance (DeFi) trading to offer in one place, making them accessible through smart contracts, has seen a rise in activity as well. Coming up as the 6th altcoin on the list, Unilend’s growth spans “High Transaction Volume, Active Addresses, Network Growth, Whale Transactions, $100K-$1M Whale Accumulation, Exchange Inflow.”

UniLend (UFT) Altcoins

Altcoins: Exercise Caution With These Cryptos

Although these assets have seen a lot of increase in their network activities, the crypto analyst warns that “It appears that 4 out of these 6 highlighted projects are likely getting hot network activity BECAUSE of the price pump. For the other 2, there are no guarantees that a pump is around the corner.”

However, as always, crypto investors are urged to “make your own assessments, research these and the many other projects that show similar hot network activity on this model in weeks to come.”

Crypto total market cap chart from Tradingview.com (Altcoins)

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Ethereum Plunge Drives Liquidation Above $30 Million, More Pain To Come?

The Ethereum price saw a notable price plunge on Monday when the Ethereum Foundation reportedly started selling coins. This plunge, in turn, triggered a series of liquidation events that have seen ETH traders suffer massive losses in the last day.

Ethereum Liquidation Volumes Cross $30 Million.

By Tuesday, October 10, the Ethereum liquidation numbers triggered by the price crash ramped up quickly to cross the $32 million market. As expected, long traders suffered the majority of the losses with Coinglass data pointing to 87.61% of all ETH liquidation volumes coming from long traders.

This meant that of the over $32 million in liquidation volumes recorded for the asset in the past day, $29.56 million were from long positions. This meant that only $2.91 million in short positions were liquidated.

Ethereum price liquidations

Ethereum also snagged the crown for the largest single liquidation event for the 24-hour period. The trade was placed on the Binance crypto exchange across the ETHBUSD pair with a total value of $4.53 million by the time the liquidation occurred.

Ethereum’s volumes also put it ahead of Bitcoin for the same time period when Bitcoin usually tends to lead liquidation volumes. In the 24-hour timeframe, Bitcoin liquidation volumes came out to $19.28 million compared to $32.48 million for Ethereum. But just like ETH, the vast majority of the liquidation volumes for BTC were from long traders.

Ethereum price chart from Tradingview.com (Liquidations)

Over 20,500 Crypto Traders Suffer Losses

The liquidation volumes over the last day have been nowhere near the highest for the year but that does not make it any less significant. CoinGlass’s data shows that as of the time of writing, 20,525 crypto traders have been liquidated for a total of $56.42 million.

Of this figure, long traders have accounted for $44.9 million in losses, and short traders for $11.48 million. Besides Bitcoin and Ethereum, the other assets that saw notable volumes were Bitcoin Cash (BCH) with $3.59 million, XRP with $2.77 million, and Solana (SOL) with $2.75 million.

The Binance exchange accounted for the largest volumes at $24.86 million, followed by the OKX exchange with $17.16 million. Next on the list is ByBit with $6.90 million, Huobi with $5.8 million, and the CoinEx exchange which rounded off the top 5 with $1.05 million.

If there continues to be any large swing in prices like what was witnessed on Monday, then the liquidation volumes are expected to continue. The only way these volumes will remain low is if assets in the market continue to trade in a tight range.

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Tether Continues To Flow Into Exchanges: Why This Is Bullish For Bitcoin

Tether (USDT) has continued to move into exchanges recently. Here’s why this can be a positive development for Bitcoin.

Tether Supply On Exchanges Is Now Highest In 7 Months

According to data from the on-chain analytics firm Santiment, $9.99 billion worth of USDT is now on exchanges. The indicator of relevance here is the “supply on exchanges,” which keeps track of the total amount of a cryptocurrency being stored in all centralized exchanges’ wallets.

The interpretation of this metric can differ depending on the type of asset that’s being discussed. In the case of Bitcoin, for example, the exchange reserve may be considered a measure of the potential selling pressure, as one of the reasons investors may deposit the coin is for selling-related purposes.

Thus, the cryptocurrency’s supply on exchanges going up could be a sign that selling is increasing in the sector, and hence, the asset’s price may be heading towards a bearish outcome.

In the context of the current discussion, BTC’s supply on exchanges isn’t the one of interest, but rather the metric for Tether is. USDT is a popular stablecoin (the largest one based on market cap) that always has its value pegged to the US Dollar.

Here is a chart that shows the trend in the supply of exchanges for Tether over the past few years:

Tether Supply on Exchanges Vs Bitcoin

Usually, an investor may want to hold their capital as a stablecoin like USDT to keep it away from the volatility associated with other assets in the cryptocurrency sector.

However, many such stablecoin holders use these assets as a temporary safe haven, as they eventually wish to return to the volatile market.

When these investors finally find the time to jump back into cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin, they swap their USDT for them. These traders may use exchanges to make this shift, so a rise in the supply on exchanges of the stablecoin can be a sign that investors are looking to swap into volatile coins.

Such buying using Tether can naturally cause a bullish effect on the prices of BTC and others. So, in this way, the exchange supply of the stablecoin can be considered the opposite of the metric for BTC.

The above graph shows that the indicator’s value has increased in the last few weeks. “The $9.99B worth of Tether sitting on exchanges is the highest level of buying power for crypto’s top stablecoin in approximately seven months,” notes Santiment.

It should be kept in mind that the rise in the Tether supply on exchanges only implies an increase in the available dry powder. Whether Bitcoin would benefit from a boost depends on whether this dry powder is used to buy the asset or not.

BTC Price

Bitcoin has declined in the past couple of days as the asset now trades around the $27,600 level.

Bitcoin Price Chart

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XRP Price Gearing Up For Rebound As Whales Make Their Move

Although the XRP price has witnessed a decline along with the overall crypto market since the beginning of October, recent price action shows XRP is consolidating in the $0.5 support level, suggesting the early stages of a rebound may be brewing. In addition to this, on-chain data has revealed some whales are expanding their holdings in preparation for the rebound.  

Large XRP Transactions Hint At Accumulation

Various on-chain data has shown large XRP transactions in the past few weeks to and from exchanges, suggesting some whales might be accumulating XRP tokens.

According to data from Whale Alerts, a crypto whale tracking service, 50 million XRP worth $24.8 million was recently transferred from Crypto.com to a private wallet. 

Whatever the reasons, massive XRP transactions like this are worth paying attention to as they can either increase or decrease buying and selling pressure.  

While there have been other whale movements from private wallets to exchanges, data from the crypto analytics platform Santiment points to an accumulation tactic from XRP whales. A metric that follows the balances of wallets holding between 100,000 to 1 million XRP has significantly increased since the beginning of the month. 

In this last 7-day timeframe, the net cumulative balance in these wallets increased by 60 million XRP tokens from 3.77 billion to 3.83 billion. XRP is currently trading at $0.499, putting the net increase of these whales at $29.9 million.

XRP price chart from Tradingview.com

What’s Next For XRP Price – Potential Impact

Interest in the XRP price is now at one of its highest levels, and according to financial analysts, the cryptocurrency is leading the charge in upending the conventional payments sector. The number of XRP holders has also steadily been on the rise, as news about Ripple and the SEC has continued to generate attention for XRP. 

Data from Santiment below shows this measure is now at 4.8 million wallet addresses:

Ethereum price

The XRP price is down by 2.11% in the past 24 hours, but trading volume increased by 56.53%. Higher volume means there is more activity and interest in an asset, which can indicate a price spike. However, bulls have failed to hold the $0.50 support zone, and XRP might continue to move down if it breaks below $0.488. 

With whales accumulating, key support levels holding, and the SEC lawsuit progressing in Ripple’s favor, there might be a bullish reversal for XRP. According to one analyst, XRP could rise 1137% to a new to a new all-time high of $5.85.