Coinpedia - Fintech & Cryptocurreny News Media| Crypto Guide

The cryptocurrency market exceeded $1 trillion in market capitalization for the first time since November 2021. On January 14, the value of Bitcoin rose to over $21,000, an increase of 7.5%, as investors anticipate a potential bottom in inflation. This marks the 11th consecutive day of growth for Bitcoin, which had not been above $20,000 since November 8. Additionally, other major cryptocurrencies such as Ether, Cardano, and Dogecoin also experienced significant gains.

The Pi Bridge utility token, Wrapped Pi (WPI), has launched as an intended bridge between Pi Network and BNB Chain. The main aim of Wrapped Pi is to bridge between BNB Chain and Pi Network. The WPI is an unofficial token for the BNB Chain acting as an alternative for the native Pi Coin. 

As per Pi Bridge, more Decentralized Finance (DeFi) products like liquidity pools will be built for Wrapped Pi on BNB Chain.

As per Nansen data in December, Ether staking solutions were in high demand as Ethereum shifted to a proof-of-stake mechanism. Lido Finance, a Liquid staking protocol, seems to be strengthened with the Ethereum merge with its total value locked (TVL) now hitting the top position in the Defi. As per Defi lama Data, Lido Finance now has $5.9 billion in TVL surpassing MakerDAO’s $5.89 billion and AAVE’s $3.7 billion. 

Following the Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) meeting on Wednesday, the price of bitcoin and the rest of the cryptocurrency market experienced a downward trend. On December 14, the Federal Reserve (FED) announced that the federal funds rate would rise by 50 basis points (bps).

The announcement caused the prices to soar, and BTC increased by 3.39% to trade at $18,373. However, Bulls failed to sustain and the flagship currency tumbled down back to $17,822.

Ex – FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried, who led the exchange until a liquidity crunch forced the Bahamas-based cryptocurrency exchange to declare bankruptcy, was arrested on Monday in The Bahamas after being criminally charged by U.S. prosecutors.

After getting official confirmation of the accusations against Bankman-Fried, the Bahamas’ attorney general’s office said it went forward with the arrest and added that it anticipates he would be extradited to the US.

 On Monday, the algorithmic decentralized USD (USDD) stablecoin on the Tron network dropped to $0.9695, its lowest level since June. A few hours ago, Curve Finance had almost $4 million USDD in liquidity taken from it, accounting for approximately 12.83% of the pool’s entire stake. Tron’s USDD on Curve has a drastically skewed USDD/3CRV liquidity pool, with USDD accounting for 86.1% of the total.

Major cryptocurrencies experienced small declines during Monday’s early Asian trade. Investors prepare for another interest rate hike on Wednesday as they wait for the release of the November consumer price index, a crucial inflation indicator.

On Tuesday, December 13, the Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) will begin its subsequent two-day meeting.

Paypal is planning to expand its cryptocurrency services to the European Union by opening its EU headquarters in Luxembourg. This move will allow other countries in the bloc to take advantage of Paypal’s crypto services once the Markets in Crypto Assets (MiCA) regulation comes into effect. The MiCA regulation allows registered firms in any single member state to provide services throughout the EU through a process called “passporting”. 

Several cryptocurrency exchanges, including Binance, Coinbase, Nexo, and Gemini, have already registered in Italy using this process.

A Shiba Inu developer, “Shiba Trophias,” recently tweeted that “time is ticking for the project’s official rollout.” The tweet was believed by the SHIB community to be referring to the release of Shiba Inu’s layer-2 network (L2), dubbed Shibarium. 

However, the tweet did not explicitly mention Shibarium and instead noted that the V1 design of the project is complete and the development team is finalizing the contents. The launch will be in phases, but it is unclear which project the tweet was referring to.

The US Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) is considering adopting stricter measures for decentralized finance (DeFi) to combat financial crimes.

As noted by the agency’s director, Himamauli Das, the agency is taking a closer look at its anti-money laundering and counter-terrorism financing framework for cryptocurrencies and digital assets to determine if additional regulations or guidance are necessary. The regulator is particularly concerned with the potential for DeFi to reduce or eliminate the role of financial intermediaries in areas of anti-money laundering.

The Bank of Spain is launching an experimental study on wholesale central bank digital currencies (CBDCs) to determine their adaptability to the needs of an increasingly digital society. The study will focus on simulating the movement of funds and the liquidation of financial assets, as well as analyzing the pros and cons of launching a wholesale CBDC. Interested parties can submit proposals through the application process, which ends on January 31, 2023.

The order delivered by the Bankruptcy judge of the Southern District of New York directed Celsius, the crypto lender, to return the cryptocurrency worth $50M to Custody Account Holders. According to the Celcius filing in September, it has about 58,300 users who collectively deposited over $210 million with its custody and withhold, with 15,680 customers holding “Pure Custody Assets” worth around $44 million. The matter was taken to a hearing by the Bankruptcy Court of the southern district of New York on October 6. It applies to an amount of crypto that was worth about $44 million in September. 

Elon Musk, the owner of Twitter and CEO of Tesla briefly lost the title of the richest man in the world on Wednesday, according to Forbes, due to a sharp decline in the value of his share in Tesla and a $44 billion bet on the social media company. 

Musk briefly lost 1.6 trillion of his wealth. He was overtaken by a french billionaire, Bernard Arnault, whose family owns the world’s leading luxury group. 

Sam Bankman-Fried, also known as SBF, commented on the FTX US’s solvency in a recent interview conducted by Andrew Ross Sorkin for The New York Times at the publication’s annual DealBook Summit.

He said that “The US platform—the US-regulated platform with American users—to my knowledge, that’s fully solvent. That’s fully funded and I believe that withdrawals could be opened up today and everyone could be made whole from that.”

Crypto providers will have to report details of their EU clients’ transactions to national tax authorities within the bloc, under a bill set to be proposed by the European Commission next week. 

The new law, inspired by international standards designed to curb crypto tax evasion, could also apply to stablecoins, derivatives, and non-fungible tokens (NFTs), and force even non-EU-based crypto providers to register within the bloc, the document reveals.

Recently, a transcript of Tiffany Fong’s phone conversation with SBF surfaced. According to reports, the interview took place five days after FTX declared bankruptcy on November 11. SBF makes a few exaggerated statements concerning fund recovery in this interview.

Sam Bankman-Fried, the disgraced founder of the cryptocurrency exchange FTX, has been intermittently appearing on Twitter lately. He is reportedly scheduled to speak on November 30 at the DealBook Summit, the annual conference of the New York Times.

The “KuCoin Earn” deposit interest rate on the current platform has reportedly risen, with annualized interest rates of 229% for ETH, 305% for BTC, and 100% for USDT, according to the official website of the cryptocurrency trading platform KuCoin.

Since the FTX crash, numerous platforms with the claim of offering high-interest deposits have closed down one after another, which is curious while cryptocurrency bears continue to slump. Where did the interest rate get so high?

Crypto exchange Binance has allocated another $1 billion for its industry recovery fund, effectively increasing the size of the fund to over $2 billion. The additional allocation was announced by Binance CEO Changpeng “CZ” Zhao on Friday.

The size increase comes a day after CZ said that Binance is targeting $1 billion for its crypto recovery fund. Aptos Labs, Jump Crypto, along with other prominent crypto companies joined Binance’s initiative and will contribute $50 million to the fund.

According to a recent tweet from Wublockchain, The Poloniex exchange, which Justin Sun acquired from Circle in 2019, will merge with his recently acquired Huobi exchange, according to sources familiar with the matter. Coingecko shows that Poloniex’s daily spot trading volume is only 1/10 of Huobi’s. 

On November 24th, deposits and withdrawals for stablecoins on the BEP20 (BSC) network were suspended by the cryptocurrency exchange Poloniex. These include Binance’s own BUSD as well as USDT, USDC, and TUSD.

Coinlist, one of the top cryptocurrency crowdfunding platforms, has halted its withdrawal. As per WuBlockchain tweet, Some community members reported that Coinlist, the largest cryptocurrency crowdfunding platform, was unable to withdraw coins. The official reason is that the custody partner is undergoing maintenance, but it has lasted for more than a week. Coinlist incurs a $35M loss in a 3AC crash.