Crypto news
Crypto lender Hodlnaut seeks judicial management to avoid forced liquidation
Singapore-based crypto lending platform Hodlnaut is seeking judicial management to manage its ongoing liquidity crisis and avoid the forced liquidation of assets in the current bear market. The crypto lender informed its users in a Tuesday announcement that they have applied to the Singapore High Court to be placed under judicial management. The firm said: “We are aiming to avoid a forced liquidation of our assets as it is a suboptimal solution that will require us to sell our users’ cryptocurrencies such as BTC, ETH and WBTC at these current depressed asset prices. Instead, we believe that undergoing judicial management would provide the best chance of recovery.” Judicial management is a law in Singapore that allows financially troubled firms to rehabilitate themselves. Und...
Do Kwon breaking silence triggers responses from the community
As the Terra (LUNA) co-founder and CEO Do Kwon breaks his silence about the collapse of the algorithmic stablecoin Terra USD (UST) and LUNA, the community responded with various sentiments against the Terra executive. Despite Kwon’s attempts to clear his name in an interview, community members remain unhappy with the Terra CEO. In a tweet, podcaster Eric Conner compared Do Kwon’s situation with the Tornado Cash developer who has been arrested. According to Conner, Kwon scammed billions and is still “partying” while Tornado Cash developers wrote some code for privacy and are now “fearing for their lives.” Crypto researcher FatManTerra also shared his thoughts on Kwon’s interview. The researcher described the interview as a “nothingburger.” FatManTerra tweeted that the Terr...
Court filings reveal Celsius will run out of money by October
Embattled crypto lender Celsius Network is on track to run out of money by October, according to the firm’s latest Chapter 11 documents. Filed on Aug. 14 to the U.S. Bankruptcy Court of the Southern District of New York, Celsius highlighted that it is expected to reach negative liquidity by October 2022 to approximately $34 million. The lending platform, which held the trust of many across the world with life savings and retirement funds, was revealed to be in a much worse financial position than originally suggested in July. Court documents revealed this week that Celsius’ three-month cash flow forecast, which shows steep declining liquidity, indicates the company will experience an approximate 80% drop in liquidity funds from August to September. The forecast predicts Celsius will contin...
Bitcoin miners hodl 27% less BTC after 3 months of major selling
According to a fresh prediction from crypto analysis firm Arcane Research, miners will continue to sell more BTC than they earn. Miners sold nearly 30% of record BTC stash since May The trip to $25,000 this month decreased pressure on a Bitcoin mining sector which has struggled throughout 2022. At one point, fears abounded that miners’ production cost was far higher than the Bitcoin spot price, and that heavy sales would result in order for miners to stay in business. Worse still, many may have to retire altogether due to their activities no longer being financially viable. Data from the period since May appeared to confirm that major upheaval was taking place. As Arcane notes, one public miner alone — Core Scientific — sold around 12,000 BTC in the period from May to July. While the trend...
BitGo to sue Galaxy Digital for $100M over dropped acquisition
Digital asset custodian BitGo said it planned to seek more than $100 million in damages from Galaxy Digital, alleging the investment firm owed the funds as part of a “reverse break fee” in its decision to terminate an acquisition agreement. In a Monday blog post, BitGo referred to Galaxy’s actions as “improper” in claiming a breach of contract to drop an agreement to acquire the digital asset custodian. BitGo has enlisted the services of law firm Quinn Emanuel to pursue legal action against Galaxy for not paying a “$100 million reverse break fee it had promised back in March 2022.” According to Galaxy, BitGo failed to provide audited financial statements for 2021 by July 31, 2022 as part of the acquisition agreement, a claim Quinn Emanuel partner R. Brian Timmons denied: “The attempt by Mi...
Traders flinch after Ethereum price rejects at $2,000
Ether (ETH) rejected the $2,000 resistance on Aug. 14, but the solid 82.8% gain since the rising wedge formation started on July 13 certainly seems like a victory for bulls. Undoubtedly, the “ultrasound money” dream gets closer as the network expects the Merge transaction to a proof-of-stake (PoS) consensus network on Sept. 16. Ether price index in USD, 12-hour chart. Source: TradingView Some critics point out that the transition out of proof-of-work (PoW) mining has been delayed for years and that the Merge itself does not address the scalability issue. The network’s migration to parallel processing (sharding) is expected to happen later in 2023 or early 2024. As for the Ether bulls, the EIP-1559 burn mechanism introduced in August 2021 was essential to drive ETH to scar...
19 celebrities called out by consumer watchdog group for shilling NFTs
Consumer watchdog group Truth in Advertising (TINA.org) has called out 19 celebrities for allegedly promoting non-fungible tokens (NFTs) without disclosing their connection to the projects. The not-for-profit consumer advocacy organization said on their website they investigated “celebrities who promote non-fungible tokens (NFTs) on their social media channels”, finding that “it is an area rife with deception.” Among the star-studded list are sports stars Floyd Mayweather and Tom Brady, music icons Eminem and Snoop Dog, and several actresses, including Gwyneth Paltrow, all of whom have been sent letters urging them to immediately disclose any material connections they have to NFT companies or brands they have promoted, stating: “The promoter often ...
Korean regulators investigate banks over $6.5B tied to Kimchi premium
South Korean banks are being investigated for their role in facilitating $6.5 billion in suspicious overseas remittances which have been tied to companies arbitraging cryptocurrency. According to an Aug. 15 report from Asia Times, the Financial Supervisory Service (FSS) ordered an investigation into South Korean banks last month after identifying a significant amount of overseas remittance transactions at the end of June. The investigation found that a majority of the $6.5 billion remitted overseas between Jan 2021 and Jun 2022 came from crypto exchange accounts before being sent out of the country, suggesting some Korean companies are exploiting the “Kimchi premium (kimp).” The Kimchi premium is the gap in cryptocurrency prices in South Korean exchanges compared to forei...
Binance obtains in-principle approval to operate in Kazakhstan
The Astana Financial Services Authority, or AFSA, an independent financial regulator in Kazakhstan, has taken a step towards licensing major cryptocurrency exchange Binance to operate in the country. In a Monday announcement, AFSA said it had granted in-principle approval toward Binance operating as a digital asset trading facility and providing custody services in the Astana International Financial Centre, a financial hub in the capital city of Nur-Sultan. In a Monday blog post, Binance said it was required to complete the application process for approval, which the crypto exchange expected to do “in due course.” According to AFSA CEO Nurkhat Kushimov, the move toward granting Binance a license to operate in Kazakhstan could lead to the development of a “vibrant ecosystem of digital asset...
Only 50 or so profiles out of 7,000 Binance employees on LinkedIn are real, says CZ
According to a Sunday Twitter post by Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao, also known as CZ, only about 50 out of 7,000 users claiming to be employees of the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchange on Linkedin are real. The crypto executive lamented the lack of a real-ID authentication system on Linkedin, saying: “I wished LinkedIn had a feature to let the company verify people. So, many “hey, I am responsible for listing” scammers on LinkedIn. Be careful.” The LinkedIn crypto scam typically begins as an unsolicited request from an apparent crypto exchange executive to project stakeholders regarding a potential token listing. Profiles are cleverly crafted to show years of experience in the industry, along with, multiple connections, sometimes up to 500-plus, to derive ...
Price analysis 8/15: BTC, ETH, BNB, XRP, ADA, SOL, DOGE, DOT, SHIB, AVAX
Bitcoin (BTC) has been witnessing a tough battle between the bulls and the bears near the $25,000 level. A clear winner may not emerge in the short term due to a lack of a catalyst and because there is no major macroeconomic data scheduled for this week in the United States. Data points from Asia or Europe may increase volatility, but they are unlikely to start a new directional move. Anthony Scaramucci, founder and managing partner of Skybridge Capital, in an interview with CNBC, advised investors to ride out the current uncertainty in cryptocurrencies and “stay patient and stay long term.” He expects Bitcoin to reward investors immensely with a sharp uptrend over the next six years. Daily cryptocurrency market performance. Source: Coin360 Along with the focus on Bitcoin, investors are al...
Canadian regulatory council creates new preregistration filing for crypto platforms
The Canadian Securities Administrators (CSA), the council of provincial and territorial securities regulators, announced Monday that crypto trading platforms will be expected to provide a preregistration undertaking to their principal regulators as they take steps to comply fully with securities regulation. Two platforms, Crypto.com and the Canadian platform Coinsquare Capital Markets, have already filed those undertakings. Trading platforms will be expected to agree in the undertaking to comply with terms and conditions relating to investor protection. Filing the undertaking will allow crypto trading platforms to continue operating during the review of their applications for registration with the CSA. The new undertaking is part of the “interim approach” introduced in the guida...
