The firm estimated it had more than 100,000 creditors, between $500 million and $1 billion in assets, and between $500 million and $1 billion in liabilities.
U.S. Crypto Exchange Bittrex Files for Bankruptcy in Delaware
Crypto exchange Bittrex has filed for bankruptcy in the U.S. state of Delaware, months after announcing it would wind down operations in the country and weeks after being sued by the Securities and Exchange Commission.
MakerDAO launches Spark Protocol, a new DeFi lending solution for DAI users
The initial iteration of the Spark Protocol will function as a lending platform, offering supply and borrow functionalities for cryptocurrencies ETH, stETH, DAI and sDAI.
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.
Canto Blockchain Set for Vote on Reduction in Liquidity Incentives, Block Rewards
If passed, the mining incentives for each liquidity pool on Canto will be reduced on average by roughly 38%, and data-block rewards known as “security emissions” would decrease by 15%.
Discovering The Next PEPE And SHIB: Whales To Keep Track Of
Missing out on crypto that becomes the next big thing in crypto can hurt. To avoid this, popular on-chain analyst LookOnChain has sorted out prominent whales to keep an eye on and ease the task of catching the next PEPE.
According to the analyst, these whales were very early to notable meme coins such as Shiba Inu (SHIB). LookOnChain noted these whales are “smartMoneys that both bought SHIB and PEPE early and made millions of USD.”
Discovering The Next Memecoin That Could Run 100x
In a series of threads, LookOnChain unveiled three SmartMoney wallet addresses that invested early before the bull run. Whales are large cryptocurrency investors believed to understand the market well and make early and efficient investment decisions.
They are mostly known to take long-term positions in projects they believe in. Other investors closely follow their actions to capitalize on their investment strategies.
According to data from Etherscan, the first address highlighted by LookOnChain is one of the earliest SHIB buyers. It purchased 1.31 trillion tokens for $13.5K in February 2021, when the SHIB traded at $0.00000001.
This individual later sold the tokens for $5.81 million during the bull run, earning a profit of over $5.8 million. Interestingly, this same address started investing in PEPE as early as April 17, well before the asset became hype among investors, buying a total of 396.7 billion PEPE with $9,815.
After selling 116.8 billion tokens from its PEPE holdings for $392K, the address now holds 280 billion PEPE, with $1.18 million in realized and unrealized profits. Another address, which began investing in SHIB as early as April 2021, made a profit of $3.84 million on their investment.
This same address started purchasing PEPE on April 19, buying 558.5 billion PEPE with $286K. The current unrealized profit on the token investment held by this address is $1.34 million.
LookOnChain also mentioned an address associated with the domain “cryptopolitan.eth” that purchased SHIB in February 2021 at the same time as the first address, making a profit of $2.45 million on the investment.
This same address began purchasing PEPE on April 19, buying 340 billion PEPE with $103,000. As of this writing, cryptopolitan has secured a profit of $695,000 from the frog meme token investment.
PEPE: Ran Out Of Gas
Meanwhile, the memecoin crashed after making significant waves in the crypto industry over the past week. The memecoin is now beginning to see a price decline, indicating traders are profiting or getting bored of the memecoin.
The token’s rally initially started late last month. This was when the memecoin pumped from a low of $0.00000002 on April 27 to as high as $0.0000042 on May 5. This growth drew the attention of many traders and investors, who saw it as an opportunity to profit from meme-inspired crypto.
The price of the token began to decline soon after reaching that peak. As of May 8, the token price had fallen to $0.000000211, representing a decline of 51% from its all-time high.
Featured image from The Block, Chart from TradingView
Argentina says no to crypto payments, France tolerates ‘finfluencers’: Law Decoded, May 1–8
Argentina’s central bank banned payment providers from offering crypto transactions, adding that it intends to reduce the country’s payment-system exposure to digital assets.
Bitcoin Falls Below $27.5K as Investors Weigh Meme Mania, Binance Congestion Issues
Ether’s deflationary narrative continues despite Monday’s price drop. Major crypto assets traded down on Monday.
State-sponsored Chinese AI firm launches bot service to ‘surpass’ ChatGPT
Chinese tech company iFlytek recently made waves with the launch of its “Spark Model,” an AI system it says will surpass ChatGPT by the end of the year.
Bit4You’s Affairs in Doubt Even Before CoinLoan Collapse, Belgian Regulator Says
FSMA’s concerns meant the exchange could have lost its license or even faced prosecution, even before the Estonian platform which held its funds filed for insolvency
South Korean lawmaker allegedly cashed out while legislating on crypto: Report
National Assembly member Kim Nam-kuk had authority in handling laws related to digital assets in South Korea, reportedly backing a bill proposing a 20% crypto gains tax be deferred.
Pro-XRP Lawyer Weighs In On The Ongoing Lawsuit Ruling
Bill Morgan has weighed in on discussions regarding the XRP lawsuit while the crypto community awaits the judge’s ruling. Morgan responded to a Twitter user, Marc Fagel, who’s been debating the XRP lawsuit with John Deaton.
Morgan noted that Judge Torres was clear regarding her line of judgment on the Ripple case. Notably, the main issue in the case is whether or not Ripple sold XRP as a security.
Bill Morgan on Judge Torres
In Bill Morgan’s opinion, Judge Torres will base her judgment on facts regardless of the SEC’s broad and undefined position. Also, Ripple argues that it did not require registration since it didn’t sell XRP as an investment contract.
Judge Torres made it very clear in the Daubert motion decision that the issue she must decide is whether Ripple sold XRP as a security despite the SEC taking broader positions at times in this litigation that seemed to suggest any sale of XRP was an investment contract or /1 https://t.co/HL1mclv8Xg pic.twitter.com/BrcHGAQlG9
— bill morgan (@Belisarius2020) May 8, 2023
However, the SEC took a broader stand that all XRP sales are securities, relying on the first allegation that Ripple distributed XRP through statutory underwriters.
Morgan is unsure how Judge Torres will decide the case and why the SEC overstretches its positions towards XRP sales in the secondary market.
Morgan noted that the SEC argues that Ripple’s XRP continuous offering in the secondary market violates securities law, stretching toward ODL customers who are not investors. In addition, he said that all XRP sales occur in the secondary market since Ripple has only offered XRP to ODL partners since 2020.
He also responded to the founder of Crypto Capital, Justin Bons’ comment that Ripple’s defense hinges on XRP decentralization. According to Morgan, Ripple’s defense does not hinge on the XRP ledger’s decentralization but on the Howey test application.
However, the court is yet to decide the factual relevance of decentralization based on the Howey test.
Congress Should Prohibit Regulators From Working At Firms They Regulated
Recall that John Deaton called out the SEC on May 5 for its broad and undefined position on the XRP lawsuit. Deaton further noted the SEC couldn’t tag XRP as security since the sales do not meet the prongs in the Howey Test.
The attorney weighed in again today, noting specific things that should change in the SEC. The US-based lawyer said Congress should pass a law prohibiting regulators from leaving to work at a firm they previously regulated for at least three years.
Featured image from Pexels and chart from Tradingview
Binance Records Highest BTC Outflows In its History; What’s the Catch?
The latest report by on-chain tracker Whalewire shows Binance is experiencing unusual Bitcoin outflows over the past 24 hours, the highest in its history. Whalewire reported that over 162,000 BTC, worth more than $4.5 billion, left the exchange in a day.
The tracker believes something fishy is ongoing with Binance, as the crypto exchange has halted withdrawals three times today and has been offline for several hours. According to Whalewire, Bitcoin volume has plunged over 65% over the last 30 days.
162,000 BTC Moved In a Day, WhaleWire Reports
Binance, the largest cryptocurrency exchange, has been relatively stable and resilient amid several ups and downs in the crypto industry. However, the recent observation leaves one speculating if something fishy is going on with the exchange.
BREAKING: #Binance outflow data confirms largest withdrawal in it's history, over 162,000 $BTC has left the exchange, valued at over $4.6 Billion.
Are Whales/Insiders jumping ship?
pic.twitter.com/QSXYAEvHkt
— WhaleWire (@WhaleWire) May 7, 2023
Whalewire has called attention to the latest on-chain data recorded on CryptoQuant. The data shows Bitcoin outflow on Binance reached an all-time high of 162,000 BTC worth over $4.5 billion following current prices.
Related Reading: Bitcoin Block 788695: The Day Transaction Fees Took The Crown
The data appear disturbing, as it could cause fear, uncertainty, and doubt, triggering massive price slumps across the market.
However, some respondents said Binance might be moving the coins to cold storage, while others blamed it on network congestion.
Binance Clarifies Reason Behind Massive Bitcoin Outflows
Binance also confirmed this in a tweet posted about four (4) hours ago to reassure that it is aware of the large outflow recorded by some on-chain trackers. The exchange clarified that it moved Bitcoin from hot to cold wallets due to Bitcoin address adjustments.
We’re aware that some data are showing a large volume of outflows from #Binance.
This ‘outflow’ are actually movements between Binance hot and cold wallets due to the BTC address adjustments.
— Binance (@binance) May 8, 2023
True to Binance’s reasons for the massive outflows, the Bitcoin network is experiencing issues, resulting in congestion and high fees.
According to a crypto enthusiast with a Twitter account @CryptoTea, Alexa, there are over 400,000 pending transactions on the Bitcoin network.
Crypto Tea claimed the Bitcoin network witnessed an exploit that allowed people to upload useless data to the blockchain. According to Crypto Tea, one person alone uploaded 10,000 pictures of monkeys to the Bitcoin blockchain, increasing the number of nodes by 1.4 GB. Now, the network memory use has reached 1 GB above a 300 MB limit.
However, another Bitcoin enthusiast has discounted the rumor that Bitcoin was the subject of an attack, saying that the increased usage due to the BRC-20 meme coins was the reason for the congestion.
The discrepancy caused congestions that led Binance to move BTC into cold wallets, halting withdrawals while the issues get resolved. It’s still uncertain how this issue will affect Bitcoin, but its price is 3.29% down in the last 24 hours.
Featured image from Pexels and chart from Tradingview.com
P2P Bitcoin Exchange Paxful Back Online After Temporary Suspension
Peer-to-peer (P2P) bitcoin exchange Paxful has resumed operations after being shut down for over a month, the company said in a blog post.
Crypto remains hopeful as 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.
PEPE Meme Coin Craze Spreads Wealth to Ethereum Validators Running Blockchain
As risk-taking crypto traders sought to make tremendous profits off of surging prices for the suddenly-hot PEPE, a resulting surge in transaction fees brought a windfall to validators running the Ethereum blockchain.
Chainlink (LINK) Price Crumbles As The Bears Take Down Previous Gains
The bullish trend that Chainlink (LINK) has enjoyed for much of its existence seems to have recently ended. The price of LINK has crumbled as the bears take down the bulls, leaving investors wondering what the future holds for the asset.
There was a significant 24.55% decrease within the past weeks in the Chainlink (LINK) market. Notably, on April 18, 2023, LINK dropped from $8.795 to a low of $6.635, changing the trend to favor the bears.
Chainlink (LINK) In A Consistent Bearish Trend
LINK is trading in the red today, May 8, 2023. As of the time of writing, the price is $6.66, representing a decline of 3.31%. Also, its 7 days price gains have declined, sitting at a loss of 3.44%.
LINK price kickstarted a downtrend from April 19, when it lost grip on the $8 price mark to $7. It fell below $7 to $6.91 and $6.99 on May 1 and 2 before reclaiming the $7 price. However, it continued declining till the current price of $6.94 today.
Related Reading: Shiba Inu: Whales Accumulate Yet Price Drops – What’s Going On?
Currently, the chainlink Fear & Greed Index is 55. This sentiment indicates that LINK’s market is presently neutral or slightly optimistic. One of the key factors contributing to the bearish sentiment around LINK is the general market trend.
One of the key factors contributing to the bearish sentiment around LINK is the general market trend. The cryptocurrency market has been highly volatile over the last two weeks, with many assets, including Bitcoin and Ethereum, experiencing significant price drops.
However, it is still uncertain whether the bulls will retake power and drive the price of LINK upward or if the bears will continue to rule the market.
LINK Technical Analysis
The Chainlink trading chart for May 8, 2023, shows its market trend is bearish, and LINK shows negative momentum.
Currently, the asset is trading below its 200-Day and 50-Day Simple Moving Averages (SMA). This indicates a bearish trend in the market. This also shows that both long-term and short-term trends are bearish.
LINK price is lower than its average price over the past 50 days and 200 days, respectively, and the market’s selling pressure is high.
The Relative Strength Index (RSI) is at 38.68; this shows that LINK is currently low selling pressure. An RSI below 50 indicates that the bears control the market.
Lastly, the MACD line is trading below the signal line, indicating that the sellers have more control than the buyers. The MACD histogram also confirms the bearish sentiment as it is below the zero line. The momentum will continue if the bulls cannot maintain the selling pressure.
Technical analysis/indicators are subjective and do not guarantee future performance. It should be used with other forms of analysis tools.
Featured image from Pixabay and chart from Tradingview.com
Private-Equity Giant Apollo Is Part of a Bid to Buy Bankrupt Crypto Firm Celsius
The $500 billion-plus firm is involved in NovaWulf’s offer for Celsius, according to a person familiar with the matter.
Cetus DEX’s IDO oversubscribed after Sui mainnet launch
According to developers, the fundraising goal of the initial DEX offering was reached in less than one minute.
