Wash trading on nonfungible token (NFT) marketplaces is back in the spotlight after critics claimed the fast-growing NFT marketplace Blur has incentivized the practice with its trading rewards scheme. 10% of Blur’s total token supply was distributed to users based on their trading activity in its second token reward scheme from Feb. 14. The platform
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Bitcoin moved closer to $25,000 on Tuesday, as banking withdrawals rose following the collapse of Signature Bank and Silicon Valley Bank. Reports suggest that withdrawals at the likes of JPMorgan and Citibank are nearing a ten-year high. First Republic Bank has been another major firm to fall, with its stock dropping by over 60% on
The price of Bitcoin (BTC) saw a sharp uptick over $26,000 as the U.S. Department of Labor released the latest consumer price index (CPI) data for February 2023. CPI rose 0.4% last month on a seasonally adjusted basis, with the department noting that the all items index denoting inflation increased by 6% over the last year.
The depegging of USD Coin (USDC) and Dai (DAI) from the United States dollar prompted a frenzy of loan repayments over the weekend, allowing debtors to save a total of more than $100 million on their loans. Following the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank on March 10, the USDC price dropped to lows of $0.87 on March
Governor Mark Gordon of the United States state of Wyoming recently signed a bill preventing the forced disclosure of private keys in a move to protect the privacy of digital asset owners. The incoming law reads, “No person shall be compelled to produce a private key or make a private key known to any other
Several Ripple executives have spoken out about the banking crisis in the United States. The company itself has been affected by the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank (SVB). As Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse clarified on Sunday, the company is affected “to some extent.” SVB was a banking partner and held a portion of Ripple’s cash
Privacy-oriented blockchain platform Aztec is preparing to shut down Aztec Connect, the network’s privacy infrastructure serving as the encryption layer for Ethereum. Aztec Network officially announced the upcoming closure of Aztec Connect, and plans to disable Aztec Connect deposits from front-ends like zk.money and zkpay.finance on March 17. According to a blog post by Aztec,
Bitcoin (BTC) begins a new week with a bullish surge above $22,000 as the United States Federal Reserve injects liquidity into the U.S. economy. In a move which can rival any classic Bitcoin comeback, BTC/USD is up a full 15% off the two-month lows seen on March 10. The volatility — and temporary relief for
South Dakota Governor Kristi Noem has vetoed a bill that bans the use of cryptocurrencies, including bitcoin, as money. The bill, masquerading as a Universal Commercial Code (UCC) guidelines update, also paves the way for central bank digital currencies (CBDCs). Emphasizing that this bill is clearly “a threat to our freedom,” the governor urged 20
Crypto exchange Gemini had no funds at Signature Bank, and its Gemini US Dollar (GUSD) stablecoin was not backed by any deposits at the failed bank, according to a March 13 official tweet from the company. 1/ It’s very sad to hear the news about Signature Bank. They have been incredible partners to Gemini and
The United States should lead the development of central bank digital currencies (CBDCs) away from being “surveillance coins” and toward being “freedom coins,” says the former chair of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission. In a March 13 op-ed in The Hill, Christopher Giancarlo said that the U.S. “must influence” CBDC development toward protecting “democratic values like
The United States Justice Department is reportedly investigating the collapse of the TerraClassicUSD (USTC) stablecoin, which contributed to a $40 billion wipeout in the Terra ecosystem last May. Two agencies within the department — the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York — have interrogated former
Contagion from the March 13 flash loan attack against Euler has spread far and wide, resulting in frozen or lost funds for 11 different decentralized finance (DeFi) protocols, according to reports from each of them on Twitter. Balancer, an Ethereum protocol with over $1 billion total value locked (TVL), is among the affected protocols. Below is
Earlier this year, Joshua Browder, CEO of AI startup DoNotPay, attempted to bring a robot lawyer into a California courtroom, despite almost certainly knowing that it was illegal in almost all 50 states to bring automated assistance like this into a courtroom. DoNotPay bills itself as the “world’s first robot lawyer” whose goal is to
Bitcoin (BTC) hit its highest since the start of the month on March 13 as U.S. bank stocks saw the largest mass halt in history. BTC price sees “phenomenal” rebound Data from Cointelegraph Markets Pro and TradingView tracked a thoroughly bullish hourly candle for BTC/USD, which reached $23,725 on Bitstamp. The move was eagerly anticipated by
On Monday, the crypto economy experienced significant market activity with $183.85 billion in global trade volume over 24 hours, with a large portion of those trades involving stablecoins. USDC traded near parity with the U.S. dollar, and several stablecoins, including tether and BUSD, sold at premiums. Tether reached a high of $1.04 per unit and
The price of Bitcoin (BTC) increased by 14.4% between March 12-13 after it was confirmed that financial regulators had rescued depositors in the failing Silicon Valley Bank (SVB). The intraday high of $24,610 may not have lasted long, but $24,000 represents a 45% increase year-to-date. On March 12, U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen, Federal Reserve
Last week, another major quake shook crypto markets. Silvergate Bank — a crypto-fiat gateway network for financial institutions and a significant on-ramp for cryptocurrencies in the United States — shut down operations due to liquidity problems. A couple of days later, another Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation-insured institution, Silicon Valley Bank (SVB), was shut down by
In the wake of the Silicon Valley Bank collapse, Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse has assured investors that the company is in a strong financial position. There have been several cases of shuttered banks this month, which has affected many crypto firms. Some top banks, including Silvergate, Silicon Valley, and Signature bank, have shut down operations
Three banks, Silvergate, Silicon Valley Bank and Signature collapsed within a span of a few days. That increased demand for United States government bonds, which sent the yield on the 2-year Treasury tumbling to 4.06%, a fall of 100 basis points since March 8. This was the largest 3-day decline since Oct. 22, 1987, following