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Nayib Bukele Slams Critics Says El Salvador Was Extremely Brave Adding Bitcoin (BTC) As A Legal Tender

Mark Brennan
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Nayib Bukele Slams Critics Says El Salvador Was Extremely Brave Adding Bitcoin (BTC) As A Legal Tender

 

One year ago, Bitcoin became legal tender in El Salvador: a watershed moment.


Nayib Bukele, the president of El Salvador, believes the nation was brave to adopt Bitcoin (BTC) as a legal tender. President Bukele made this known in a quoted tweet earlier today.

 

It is worth noting that El Salvador was heavily slammed by global financial agencies, including the International Monetary Fund (IMF), for adopting Bitcoin.  

Financial reporters also called El Salvador’s Bitcoin adoption a failed experiment. However, El Salvador stood its ground and continued to throw its weight behind the asset class, even when it became rumored that western nations may cut ties with the country. 

El Salvador did not only make Bitcoin a legal tender, but the country also splashed over $100 million on the world’s largest cryptocurrency by market capitalization. Unfortunately, El Salvador’s Bitcoin venture has not gone pretty well as expected following the massive decline of the cryptocurrency. 

But Bukele shares his views, saying: “El Salvador citizens and government were brave. They know that change won’t happen in a day. It requires time, love, effort, vision, and passion. Patience and discipline drive the progress for the next years, from tech to infrastructure development.

Remember how long it took for any meaningful change to happen in Europe? From tens of years to centuries.

Bitcoin isn’t a magic wand that fixes all the problems but can create an even playing field among nations in terms of agnostic currency. That’s why adopting bitcoin as an option gives El Salvador a first-mover advantage that is extremely rare in history.”

El Salvador’s Bitcoin Adoption

Introducing Bitcoin as a legal tender in El Salvador was a momentous event for the country and the whole cryptocurrency industry. It was the first time a nation recognized Bitcoin as a legitimate form of currency and paved the way for other countries to follow suit.

Moments after Bitcoin was made a legal tender in El Salvador, the price of the top asset skyrocketed, reaching an all-time high of over $69,000. The positive surge in prices only caused more hype around President Bukele’s adoption of Bitcoin, and he soon named himself the “World’s coolest dictator.”

But a year after El Salvador adopted Bitcoin as legal tender, the hype has largely died down. The mass adoption that Bukele’s administration anticipated is yet to happen, and instead, the value of the country’s Bitcoin holdings has declined massively.

Part of the problem was that 70% of El Salvador’s population was unbanked and underbanked when the country adopted BTC. These individuals were largely skeptical of cryptocurrency and were unwilling to put their trust in an asset that was so volatile. Additionally, the continuous crypto winter and current market state made people hesitant to use the coin.

The rollout initially seemed promising, as almost four million wallet downloads were recorded in a few weeks. However, it quickly became apparent that many of these downloads were simply people trying to claim the $30 sign-up bonus.

According to El Salvador’s President Bukele’s tweets, the country has spent $106.3 million on Bitcoin since it was approved as legal tender last year. These holdings are now worth about $45.8 million, representing a 57% loss.

In the end, President Bukele’s grand experiment failed to bring about the mass adoption of bitcoin that he had hoped for. A year later, El Salvador still struggles to convince its citizens to use cryptocurrency.

Binance Adds LUNC/USDT Trading Pair As Terra Classic Price Explode

Mark Brennan
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Binance Adds LUNC/USDT Trading Pair As Terra Classic Price Explode

 

As the trading volume of LUNC passes $1B, Binance launched new trading pair for Terra classic (LUNC) against Tether (USDT).


Binance launched Wallet Maintenance for Terra Classic Network today; after the maintenance, the exchange added a new trading pair for LUNC against tether (USDT).

According to Binance:

“Binance will open trading for LUNC/USDT trading pair at 2022-09-09 08:00 (UTC).”

The current trading volume of LUNC on Binance is above 1.5 billion Dollars; such high volume demands that the exchange should add new trading pairs for LUNC, especially against USDT, which is the top stablecoin.

Adding LUNC/USDT trading pair will allow top investors and institutions to easily trade and invest in LUNC.

Binance Futures

According to the official announcement, Binance futures launched LUNC perpetual contracts with up to 25x leverage.

 

As reported by The CryptO Basic, LUNC now stands at 26th place after its market cap surged by 31.78% in the last 24 hours to about $2.9 billion. The market cap has nearly doubled from $1.59 billion on September 2, an 82.39% rise in the previous seven days. Notably, with the move, the asset leapfrogged big-name assets like Bitcoin Cash, Monero, ApeCoin, Tezos, etc., in the market cap rankings. The better positioning results from CoinMarketCap officially updating LUNC ranking and supply.

LUNC is currently trading at 0.00053, increasing 53% in 24 hours.

Ripple Whales Shuffle Nearly 543 Million XRP Worth $180M in 24 Hours 

Mark Brennan
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Ripple Whales Shuffle Nearly 543 Million XRP Worth $180M in 24 Hours 

Over the last 24 hours, Ripple whales have shuffled hundreds of millions of XRP. 


At the time of writing, a total of 542,967,762 XRP worth $180.37 million have been transferred between unknown wallets and addresses on prominent cryptocurrency exchanges.

As expected, cryptocurrency whale tracking provider Whale Alert has been sharing details of the transaction on its Twitter page.

Details of the Transactions

According to the first transaction, a total of 40 million XRP were transferred from an unknown wallet to an address on the Bitstamp exchange. The funds were worth $13.41 million at the time of the transaction.

In almost the same hour, Whale Alert observed the movement of 37,067,762 (37.06 million) XRP from Bitstamp to an unknown wallet. At the time of the transaction, the XRP coins were valued at approximately $12.43 million. 

Whale Alert also saw the movement of another whopping amount of XRP coins to the tune of 40 million ($13.41 million), sent from an unknown wallet to the Bitso exchange. 

Again, Whale Alert tracked the movement of 30 million XRP from an unknown wallet to the Bitso cryptocurrency exchange. At the time of the transaction, the funds were valued at around $10.01 million.

In addition, a total of 65.9 million XRP were seen leaving a Bitso address to an unknown wallet. 

Three hours ago, 30 million XRP ($9.97 million) were sent from a Bittrex address to an unknown wallet. 

In the early hours of today, Whale Alert also reported that a total of 150 million XRP coins worth $50.32 million were transferred from an unknown wallet to another wallet. 

In a similar development, another 150 million XRP were sent from an unknown wallet to another unknown wallet. 

Following a spike in demand for Ripple’s On-Demand Liquidity (ODL), It has become routine to see large volumes of XRP transfer among Ripple whales.

Two Giant Whales Add 701 Billion Shiba Inu, Now Hold 14.9 Trillion Shib Tokens

Zabi
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Two Giant Whales Add 701 Billion Shiba Inu, Now Hold 14.9 Trillion Shib Tokens

 

Two Top 100 SHIB Whales Gobble Up 701.70 Billion Shiba Inu (SHIB), Worth $8.62 Million in the Past 24 Hours.


Deep-pocketed SHIB traders are becoming inexorable to accumulate the most popular dog-themed cryptocurrency as Top 100 SHIB Whales purchased a staggering $8.62 Million worth of Shiba Inu through multiple transactions in the past 24 hours.

Etherscan.io reports that the two biggest SHIB Whales have performed three significant transactions in the past 24 hours and increased their SHIB holdings with a stunning 701,707,252,495 (701.70B) Shiba Inu tokens, worth $8,628,792 ($8.62M).

The 75th Biggest SHIB Whale Purchased $6.65 Million Worth of Shiba Inu:

About three hours ago, the 75th deep-pocketed SHIB trader bought an incredible total of 541,321,360,143 (541.32B) Shiba Inu tokens worth $6,652,839 ($6.65M) in one significant transaction from the world’s leading cryptocurrency exchange, Gate.io.

SHIB Whale Accumulation
SHIB Whale Accumulation

Etherscan.io data confirms that this SHIB Whale is born recently, and the above transaction is its first-ever interaction with any exchange wallet. The new wallet now holds 541.32 Billion Shiba Inu tokens, worth $6.65 Million in her wallet.

The 7th Biggest SHIB Whale Bought $1.97 Million Worth of Shiba Inu:

On the other hand, the 7th biggest SHIB Whale gobbled up a hulk total of 160,385,892,352 (160.38M), worth $1,975,953 ($1.97M) in two separate transactions.

The whale initially paid a massive $1,757,181($1.75M) for 142,628,362,650 (142.62B) SHIB about 11 hours ago, and about 8 hours ago and bought another 17,757,529,702 (17.75B) SHIB for $218,772.

7th Biggest SHIB Whale Accumulation
7th Biggest SHIB Whale Accumulation

The Whale now holds a wacky 14,372,808,239,907 (14.37T) SHIB, worth $176,785,541 ($176.78M) in her wallet.

In total, both whales now hold 14.913 Trillion tokens.

Is Binance Looking To Support Terra Classic Burns, As Exchange LUNC Wallet Goes Under Maintenance

Mark Brennan
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Is Binance Looking To Support Terra Classic Burns, As Exchange LUNC Wallet Goes Under Maintenance

 

Is Binance Planning to Support LUNC Burn? The Exchange Schedules Wallet Maintenance for Terra Classic Network.


Several cryptocurrency exchanges have recently announced they would support the upcoming Terra Luna Classic (LUNC) 1.2% tax burn as part of an effort to make Terra investors whole again. 

As reported by TheCryptoBasic, MEXC Global, KuCoin, and Gate.io are among the world’s top exchanges that have announced they would implement the 1.2% tax burn for LUNC, once the proposal is implemented on Terra’s mainnet. 

In an interesting development, it seems Binance is also considering implementing the 1.2% tax burn for LUNC. According to a blog post today by the world’s largest trading platform, Binance said it would be conducting wallet maintenance for Terra Classic Network’s LUNC. The maintenance will commence on September 8, 2022, at 06:00 (UTC) and will run for four hours. 

“Binance will perform wallet maintenance for Terra Classic Network (LUNC) at 2022-09-08 06:00 (UTC). The maintenance will take about four hours,” Binance said.  

During the planned maintenance, the exchange will halt deposits and withdrawals of LUNC tokens. However, trading would commence as usual. 

1.2% Tax Burn Proposal for LUNC

It is noteworthy that the 1.2% tax burn proposal is seen by Terra investors as the only way to be fully compensated for the losses they suffered when the project’s stablecoin UST lost its peg to the dollar in May 2022. 

The proposal requires a 1.2% tax to be implemented on all LUNC transactions. The coins obtained through the tax will be destroyed permanently from the token’s total supply, thus boosting the coin’s value and attracting new investors. 

Recall that Binance CEO joined Terra investors in May, calling on the Terra team to Buy Back or burn part of LUNC’s supply to boost its value. However, these calls were ignored, as the Terra team chose a different approach entirely in its quest to compensate victims of the LUNC collapse.

More Downside For Bitcoin? As Derivative Exchanges BTC Reserves Rise

Mark Brennan
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More Downside For Bitcoin? As Derivative Exchanges BTC Reserves Rise

 

Bitcoin supply on futures exchanges is on the rise.



In a CryptoQuant Quicktake released today, market analyst Abram Chart noted that Bitcoin supply on futures exchanges is rising this month which he says is not good for the short term. 

“By monitoring the Derivative Exchanges of Bitcoin, we find that the supply on the future exchanges has increased since the beginning of this month! This huge rise in the futures exchanges can be used as liquidity to open long or short positions, which is not good for the short-term,” the analyst wrote.

Notably, according to Abram, considering the overarching macroeconomic conditions and bearish outlook of the market with increased leverage, sellers could easily put the leading digital asset under more sell pressure. 

“Bitcoin Funding Rates indicator is negative until the moment, and the bears dominate the market so far, and they can easily put more sell pressure.”

It bears mentioning that an increase in inflow to Derivative exchanges can be a good thing as it reveals an increased risk appetite as traders look to increase their exposure with leverage. However, considering the lack of narrative shift, Abram believes it may lead to more downside for the asset.

In the comments on Twitter, a user noted that the Put/Call ratio is at its most extended since May, which saw a lot of downside price movement. Therefore, according to the user, market makers are most likely betting that the price of Bitcoin will continue to slide in the short term.

Notably, Bitcoin has been under significant sell pressure recently as old whales start moving years-old dormant Bitcoin to exchanges, which CryptoQuant says is a bearish signal. On Wednesday, The Crypto Basic reported that 8-year-old 15k BTC had been moved over ten days, with some of the cache sent to Kraken.

Unsurprisingly, as the sellers appear to Circle, Bitcoin detractor Peter Schiff has once again called on Bitcoin bulls to dump the crypto asset. Calling Bitcoin a “sinking ship,” Schiff warned that investors abandon the asset before the market collapses.

It is anyone’s guess where the Bitcoin bottom will be. Still, as Galaxy Digital’s Mike Novogratz stated in April, the best bet for the asset would be for the Fed to turn dovish and allow for economic expansion, which will likely return investors’ risk appetite for assets like Bitcoin. 

Bitcoin is trading at the $19,315.50 price point, 2.92% up in the last 24 hours, rebounding off lows below $19k yesterday.

Hackers Live Stream A Fake Apple Interview on YouTube, Attracting Over 70K Viewers to a Crypto Scam 

Lele Jima
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Hackers Live Stream A Fake Apple Interview on YouTube, Attracting Over 70K Viewers to a Crypto Scam 

The hackers attempted to lure people into a crypto scam using a 2018 video of the Apple CEO.



Hackers are not relenting in their quest to exploit unsuspecting cryptocurrency investors into giving up their funds. Since the 2017 crypto boom, several antics have been used to cart away people’s crypto assets, ranging from rug pulls to hacking and using the social media accounts of popular figures worldwide to defraud unsuspecting investors. 

In a recent development, bad actors were seen live streaming an old interview of Apple CEO on YouTube and tweaking the video to lure viewers to a cryptocurrency scam. 

Details of the Scam

The video used was originally posted in 2018 during a CNN video of Tim Cook, Apple CEO. However, the bad actors tweaked the video and embedded all sorts of crypto-related and Apple descriptions to make unsuspecting victims believe Apple was launching a crypto project. 

For instance, the title has several strange keywords, which read “Apple Event Live. CEO of Apple Tim Cook: Apple & Metaverse in 2022.” Apparently, the scammers chose those keywords to attract people’s attention to the crypto scam. 

Furthermore, the description also contained some Apple keywords with a link that, when opened, would take a potential victim to a shady-looking cryptocurrency site.

 

The video was also not spared. The CNN logo was covered with the text “Apple Crypto Event 2022.” Another text, “URGENT NEWS,” was added at the bottom of the video, while the malefactor also added the Bitcoin and Ethereum logo. 

Interestingly, the scammer chose to live stream the fake video when Cook had an interview with Vox Media’s Code conference, where he talked about the iPhone 14 launch. 

The idea behind the misleading stream was to trick people who knew Apple was having a big day but still didn’t know what the event was all about. 

Jay Peters, a journalist at The Verge, said he came across the video while watching the Apple iPhone 14 launch. At the time he first saw the video, it had 16,000 likes. However, the number of viewers spiked to over 70,000 later in the day. It is unknown if some of the viewers fell for the antics. 

After the video was reported several times, YouTube took it down to prevent more people from falling victim to scammers. 

Terra Luna Classic (LUNC) Enters Top 30, Beats Monero, Stellar, Bitcoin Cash, MANA, And Tezos

Mark Brennan
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Terra Luna Classic (LUNC) Enters Top 30, Beats Monero, Stellar, Bitcoin Cash, MANA, And Tezos

 

LUNC zooms to rank 26 by market cap from 206 in less than 24 hours.

LUNA Classic (LUNC) Leapfrogs Big Names Like Tezos, ApeCoin, Bitcoin Cash, Stellar, MANA, Monero, To Rank 26 By Market Cap From 206.


LUNC is now 26th top crypto
Image Source: https://coinmarketcap.com/

 

According to data from CoinMarketCap, LUNC now ranks 26 by market cap after its market cap surged by 31.78% in the last 24 hours to about $2.9 billion. The market cap has nearly doubled from $1.59 billion on September 2, an 82.39% rise in the previous seven days. Notably, with the move, the asset leapfrogged big-name assets like Bitcoin Cash, Monero, ApeCoin, Tezos, etc., in the market cap rankings. The better positioning results from CoinMarketCap officially updating LUNC ranking and supply.

It bears mentioning that the move is a testament to the strength of the community who have taken over the reins of the project. Its focus so far has been to reduce the supply of LUNC tokens minted in excess following the de-pegging of Terra USD Classic (USTC), which saw both assets crash to zero.

The latest burn initiative in the pipeline from the community is to implement a parameter change that will see all on-chain transactions taxed a 1.2% fee, with the fee sent to the Terra-provided burn wallet. The Crypto Basic reported on Wednesday that the proposal would be made available for voting on September 10 and will be activated around September 20 if approved.

Notably, the proposal received a big boost yesterday as KuCoin and Gate.io announced they would support the tax proposal once approved. The leading exchanges join the likes of MEXC Global and Y5 Crypto, who have thrown their hat in the ring in support of the LUNC community. It bears mentioning that MEXC is currently running a two-week LUNC burn event supporting the proposal. So far, MEXC has burned about 119 million LUNC, burning a whopping 71 million LUNC yesterday.

As a result of these moves by the community, the asset has seen renewed demand, making impressive price moves in recent weeks. Crypto.com rankings reveal that the asset has been the top crypto gainer this week.  

LUNC is trading at the $0.0004885 price point, up 35.31% in the last 24 hours and 108.1% during the previous seven days.

Ripple XRPL Users to Deposit and Withdraw Assets on AMM Instance (Pool) Via New AMM Amendment    

Lele Jima
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Ripple XRPL Users to Deposit and Withdraw Assets on AMM Instance (Pool) Via New AMM Amendment    

The amendment has been added as a pull request to the Rippled codebase and will undergo rigorous testing before voting commences. 



A new amendment for Automated Market Maker (AMM) has been proposed as a pull request on the Rippled codebase. The AMM amendment was proposed by Ripple CTO David Schwartz and RippleX’s head of research, Aanchal Malhotra. 

Through the amendment, Ripple users can deposit, withdraw and govern on an AMM Instance (Pool). In addition, the amendment will also incentivize liquidity providers on the native decentralized exchange, XRPL DEX, thus boosting the capacity of XRP as a bridging currency.  

Furthermore, adding a feature on AMM Instance will also increase the continuation of auctioning off trading advantages to arbitrageurs for a fee, which will be given to liquidity providers. 

The development was shared by Wo Jake, a Ripple enthusiast who tweets about XRPL governance, network, and dev-related matters. 

“Regarding the governance mechanism, an AMM Instance also provides governance rights to the largest stakeholders of the AMM Instance. This allows them to vote on the trading fee the instance charges,” Jake said. 

With the amendment already live as a pull request on the Rippled codebase, the next phase is to pass the required testing before it is available on XRPL for voting. 

“This whole amendment screams LIQUIDITY,” Jake concluded. 

Meanwhile, the development was also shared by prominent Ripple influencer Crypto Eri. 

Previous Ripple AMM Proposal 

The update comes a few months after a GitHub release suggested that conversations were ongoing to add AMM on the XRP Ledger blockchain. 

With AMM, crypto assets can be traded without the conventional order books used by centralized exchanges. Users can automatically commence trading, thanks to a pool of available tokens made available by liquidity providers.

Terra Classic (LUNC) Leads Social Activities As Staking Gains Momentum With Over 28B Tokens Staked In 3 Hours

Albert Brown
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Terra Classic (LUNC) Leads Social Activities As Staking Gains Momentum With Over 28B Tokens Staked In 3 Hours

 

Terra Classic (LUNC) staking appears to be gathering steam, as holders staked over 28B in 5 hours on Monday.


The community of LUNAtics is not giving up on the Terra project as easily as the larger crypto space expects. The recent activities of the LUNC community highlight renewed hope in the project. From the burn tax proposal to the staking initiative, proponents are putting in every effort to revive LUNC. 

The movement appears to be escalating, as data suggest holders staked 28B LUNC in 3 hours following the introduction of the staking initiative.

LUNC Burn – an unofficial Twitter account live tracking all LUNC burns – shared the data in the late hours of Monday. 

“We are currently at 528.8b $Lunc staked, an increase of 28b in the last few hours. 7.66% of total supply locked up,” the account noted in a tweet. A screenshot was shared to corroborate the purported numbers.

 

According to the screenshot, as of September 5, 10:58 PM (UTC), the LUNC community had staked about 528B LUNC tokens. This figure represents a staggering 7.66% of the entire circulating LUNC supply of 6.9T tokens. The data underscore a massive growth in staked tokens because ten days ago – on August 27 – there were only 101B staked LUNC.

Additionally, it represented an addition of 28B staked tokens in 3 hours. A Twitter bot account automatically tracking staked numbers corroborates the data. Per data from the bot, the amount of staked LUNC on September 5, 6 PM (UTC) was sitting at 500B tokens. Surprisingly, this value rose to 528B tokens at 9 PM (UTC).

 

28B added to staking:

The Terra community will vote for the 1.2% tax burn proposal on September 10

The number has surged to 537B at the reporting time, representing 7.79% of the circulating supply. Despite the reduced pace, the massive surge in staked tokens translates to renewed confidence in LUNC. 

Staking LUNC helps with the asset’s price action, as it takes a significant amount of the asset out of the circulating supply, further limiting its supply. The asset’s price actions have also remained promising, pumping more confidence into the space. 

Following a fall from the $0.00044 high of Tuesday, LUNC slipped to a 2-day low of $0.00034 today. Notwithstanding, the asset has recently staged another comeback, as it currently trades at $0.00042 as of press time. With a 7-day gain of 162%, LUNC remains the highest-gaining asset in the past week. 

Additionally, crypto social intelligence platform, LunarCrush has ranked LUNC as the asset with the highest combined social and market activities. 

 

Despite these promising movements, Terra proponents are not showing signs of slowing down. The Crypto Basic recently revealed that the community had chosen September 10 as the date to vote for the 1.2% tax burn mechanism.

Should the poll favor the proposal, the initiative will come into effect on September 20. This will further contribute to reducing LUNC circulating supply, an exercise that could set the asset up for bigger rallies.

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