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After Correctly Predicting Ethereum’s Bear Price, Veteran Futures Trader Peter Brandt Says Bitcoin May Dip to $12,700

Mark Brennan
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After Correctly Predicting Ethereum’s Bear Price, Veteran Futures Trader Peter Brandt Says Bitcoin May Dip to $12,700

Brandt has come up with bad predictions for the world’s largest cryptocurrency.


Peter Brandt, a popular veteran futures trader who has been outspoken about cryptocurrency market conditions and prices, has done a negative analysis of the world’s largest digital currency by market capitalization, Bitcoin (BTC).

Brandt made a prediction earlier today that Bitcoin could fall as low as $12,700 in the near future unless the asset class closes above the May 31 high, when BTC surged to $32,206.

The veteran futures trader said in a tweet:

“Unless Bitcoin $BTC can close above the May 31 high, this chart could become a textbook example of the famed “Drano” chart pattern.”

BTC Dumps Amid Rising U.S. Inflation

It is worth noting that Bitcoin has fallen tremendously since June 10, 2022. The top asset has dipped from above $30,000 to $25,043 between June 10, 2022, till date, which is making many believe that Brandt’s BTC prediction may be on the verge of happening.

At press time, Bitcoin is currently changing hands at $25,612.

Over the past four days, a couple of events have been considered responsible for Bitcoin’s massive dip, including the impact of rising U.S. inflation and the Celer Network’s incident.

According to Bloomberg:

“Following rising inflation in the United States, many crypto traders have expressed concerns that U.S. authorities may introduce more stringent measures to mitigate inflation levels in the country. Federal Reserve tightening after data Friday showed US inflation jumped to a fresh 40-year high in May. This triggered a selloff in risk assets including crypto and stocks.”

Brandt’s Previous Ethereum Prediction

Meanwhile, Brandt has been known to make close to accurate market forecasts for selected digital currencies in the past.

The veteran futures trader recently predicted that Ethereum (ETH), the second-largest cryptocurrency by market capitalization, may dip to below $1,265. Interestingly, it did not take up to a week before the second top crypto asset saw itself floating around the levels predicted by Brandt. ETH price is suffering Following news of the Ethereum “Difficulty Bomb” delays.

Ethereum fell to around $1,318 across major exchanges in the last 24 hours. The asset class has gained slightly in the past hour, as it is currently trading at $1,352.

SEC Seeks to Protect the Identities of Third Parties in the Exhibit Filed in Response to Ripple’s RFA

Lele Jima
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SEC Seeks to Protect the Identities of Third Parties in the Exhibit Filed in Response to Ripple’s RFA

The SEC and Ripple have agreed that the court should keep the identities of the third parties mentioned in the exhibit confidential. 

The Securities and Exchange Commission has requested that the court seal a portion of Exhibit A filed to the Defendants’ motion. The request is based on accusations made by Ripple that the agency’s response to the Fourth Set of Requests for Admission (RFA) was insufficient.

According to the SEC, the move is intended to protect the identities of the parties whose privacy concerns supersede that of the public interest.

The SEC noted that the request to keep selected portions of Exhibit A confidential was agreed to by Ripple, adding that the blockchain company and its execs do not object.

Reason for the SEC’s Request

Furthermore, the Plaintiff also cited three criteria that the court usually considers to seal documents. The SEC asserted that “Exhibit A” is a judicial document, which has the capacity to influence the court’s ruling on the pending motion.

“However, the identities of the third parties are not relevant to the Court’s decision regarding Defendants’ motion. Indeed, the privacy interests of third parties should weigh heavily when balancing the presumption of disclosure,” the SEC stated.

Argument Over the Fourth Set RFA 

Recall that Ripple had asserted that the SEC did not adequately answer most of the questions contained in the Fourth Set of Requests for Admissions.

However, the Plaintiff noted that it did not adequately respond to the question because it lacked sufficient information on the subject matter.

The SEC’s response did not go down well with Ripple, prompting the blockchain company to accuse the agency of deliberately refusing to sufficiently respond to RFA questions.

“The SEC’s contention that it cannot answer these RFAs because it does not understand the terms ‘market participants’, ‘OIEA requests’ or FinHub requests does not pass muster. The SEC understands exactly what it is being asked to admit: that before December 22, 2022, multiple people asked OIEA and FinHub if XRP was a security and the SEC never once said that it was,” Ripple said.

Attorney James K. Filan shared the development on Twitter.

Shiba Inu (SHIB) Featured on Argentina’s Top Rated FM Channel

Zabi
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Shiba Inu (SHIB) Featured on Argentina’s Top Rated FM Channel

Shiba Inu was discussed on Argentina’s Top Rated FM Channel.

The popularity of Shiba Inu (SHIB) reaches Argentina as the dog-themed cryptocurrency gets coverage from one of the Argentina Top Rated FM Channels named “Urbana Play 104.3 FM”.

Urbana Play 104.3 FM is based in the capital city of Argentina “Buenos Aires”, and is recognized as one of the Argentina Top Rated FM Channels. The combined data from some trusted apps shows that the radio is tuned in by over 50,000 people almost daily.

Julieta Schulkin host of the radio program shared a tweet of her show aired through the ‘Urbana Play 104.3 FM platform’.

“The Power Of Shiba Inu.”

In her show, she gave awareness about the Shiba Inu to the people of Argentina.

While discussing the “Power of Shiba Inu”, she said that Shiba Inu is one of the popular dog-themed cryptocurrencies in the world and many businesses are now adding support to it. She also shared the latest news with the audience about the acceptance of Shiba Inu on the XcelTrip platform, where people from around the globe can book 2.3 million hotels, over 450 airline service providers, and car rental service providers in more than 70 countries using their Shiba Inu holdings.

There is no doubt Shiba Inu continues to outperform other cryptocurrencies in popularity and social dominance.

 

Dubai-Based “Five Hotels and Resorts” To Accept Bitcoin And Ethereum Payments

Mark Brennan
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Dubai-Based “Five Hotels and Resorts” To Accept Bitcoin And Ethereum Payments

 

A popular hotel and resort from Dubai is expanding into Europe and plans to accept BTC and ETH payments.



Cryptocurrencies are expanding their reach and acceptance into various economic sectors across the world. Of these, the hospitality industry seems to be catching up quickly.

One major hospitality establishment based in Dubai is planning to branch out in the Swiss capital and start accepting crypto payments for bookings and services.

About FIVE Hotels And Resorts

The establishment in question is FIVE Hotels and Resorts, headquartered in Dubai. It already has two branches in the region, namely FIVE Jumeirah Village and FIVE Palm Jumeirah. At any given time, the hotel has a 94% occupancy.

Now, FIVE Hotels and Resorts is planning to set up a new branch in Zurich, Switzerland, and this time, it will be a resort of one of a kind. The new Zurich branch will accept crypto payments, primarily Bitcoin and Ethereum. FIVE Zurich will commence operations on June 30th and will start taking crypto payments immediately.

Demography Is In Favor Of Cryptos

The hotel’s decision to start accepting cryptocurrencies isn’t without serious thought going into it. First off, roughly 78% of the hotel’s customers are young people under 35. In the crypto space, this particular age bracket holds around 60% of the cryptos.

Basically, by accepting crypto payments, FIVE Hotels and Resorts is endearing itself to its main customers and presenting itself as the leader in the hospitality industry when it comes to adopting new technologies and modes of operations that are popular with the majority of the customers.

Switzerland Is Friendly To Cryptos

Besides attracting a target group of crypto-savvy customers, FIVE Hotels and Resorts knows that Switzerland has built a reputation as a very crypto-friendly country in Europe. This is advantageous to FIVE since the Zurich branch is its first outlet in Europe. The move could inspire more European establishments to follow suit and possibly create in-roads for FIVE to further expand into other countries.

Investors Beware: Terra Whistle Blower Warns Followers Against Being Rugged By Fake Fatman Tokens

Mark Brennan
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Investors Beware: Terra Whistle Blower Warns Followers Against Being Rugged By Fake Fatman Tokens

 

There’s a new fake crypto token named after FatMan.



FatMan has become a popular entity within the crypto community, and even a bigger celebrity within the Terra community. He has been digging up information, even getting intel from insiders, and exposing what’s going on with TFL and Do Kwon regarding the collapse of Luna and UST.

Now, he seems to have caught the attention of scammers. In a recent Twitter post, FatMan warned his followers to be careful before sending funds to potential fraudsters using his name. This is after he got messages regarding them.

 

There’s A New Token Called “FatMan”

It turns out that there’s now a token created by scammers and named after FatMan. It’s already trading on Astroport. FatMan shared a screenshot showing the token named “FatMan.” However, he clarified that he isn’t affiliated with it and that he doesn’t plan to ever launch any token. This means that whoever created the FatMan token and put it on Astroport is a scammer and should be ignored.

Creator May Pull Liquidity And Rug Investors

FatMan went on sensitizing his base, saying that the creator of the FatMan token is highly likely to rug the investors and disappear. All they have to do is pull the liquidity and dump the tokens. Since no other details about the creator are available, there would be no way for the victims to get justice.

According to his earlier posts, FatMan has been trying to help the victims of the Luna and UST crashes get justice and have their lost investments compensated. He even plans to launch a new Terra validator whose profits will be used to compensate UST crash victims.

FatMan’s Name On The Line

According to one user’s remarks, it’s possible that bad actors are trying to discredit FatMan by creating a scandal in his name. This could be because of his growing reputation following his dedicated pursuit of the truth about Terra, Do Kwon, and affiliates that he says are responsible for the collapse of Terra and the loss of over $40 billion worth of investor funds.

Ripple V.SEC: Ripple Responds to SEC’s Quest to Keep Its Objection to Amici’s Request Confidential

Mark Brennan
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Ripple V.SEC: Ripple Responds to SEC’s Quest to Keep Its Objection to Amici’s Request Confidential

The blockchain company wants its response to be filed publicly.  


Ripple has filed under seal its response to the Securities and Exchange Commission’s opposition to amici’s participation in the upcoming Daubert expert challenge.

While the content of Ripple’s response is not yet known since it was filed under seal as required, the blockchain company has urged the court to file its reply to the SEC’s opposition to amici’s participation in the upcoming expert challenge in the public docket.

“Defendants [Ripple, Chris Larsen, and Brad Garlinghouse] respectfully request that our entire response letter be filed on the public docket (with the exception of a redaction of the expert’s name in Exhibit 1 to Defendants letter),” Ripple noted.

 

Ripple added that it decided to file its response under seal based on the deference of the court’s forthcoming ruling on the SEC’s unresolved motion to seal its opposition to amici’s participation.

SEC’s Quest to Keep Its Objection Confidential

Recall that the SEC disclosed earlier this week that it had chosen to file under seal its objection to the movants’ motion to represent 67,300 XRP investors in the upcoming expert challenge of Mr. Patrick Doody.

“Plaintiff Securities and Exchange Commission respectfully requests that the court order the sealing of the SEC’s letter in opposition to the motion by six XRP investors to file a brief regarding the opinion of one of the SEC’s experts [Doody],” the SEC said in a recent motion.

According to the Securities and Exchange Commission, the idea of keeping its objections confidential is due to safety concerns for its expert, Mr. Doody.

Ripple Disagrees With the SEC

In response to the SEC’s request to seal its objection to amici’s participation, Ripple said not every reason cited by the agency is capable of putting Mr. Doody’s safety in jeopardy.

Ripple noted that four of the five reasons the SEC cited do not seem to reflect the agency’s concern for Mr. Doody.

“The rest of the [SEC’s objection to amici’s request to participate in the upcoming expert challenge] should be publicly filed,” Defendants added.

Ripple said the SEC should redact a portion of its objections that seem to be its cause for concern, adding that the court should deny the SEC’s move to redact the entire opposition to amici’s participation in the expert challenge.

Following Ripple’s refusal, the court ordered the agency to file a redacted version of the brief and exhibit, which will be submitted by June 14, 2022.

Ripple May File Another Reply

Ripple added that after the SEC submits its redacted response and the court has ruled about the agency’s motion to seal, it may re-file its response publicly if the court permits.

Reacting to the development, attorney James K. Filan, a vocal legal practitioner in the Ripple v. SEC lawsuit, said:

“What this means is that the documents filed by the SEC and by the Ripple Defendants will remain under seal until District Judge Torres decides what should be public and what should remain under seal.”

New Terra Luna Classic Burning Proposal Get 93% Votes In Favor, Supports 35% LUNC Fee Burn, 5% For Development

Mark Brennan
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New Terra Luna Classic Burning Proposal Get 93% Votes In Favor, Supports 35% LUNC Fee Burn, 5% For Development

 

A proposal to further increase the LUNC burning rate has gained heavy support.



The Terra community has been working hard to come up with viable options to save the ecosystem, especially with respect to LUNC (Luna Classic). While Terra founder Do Kwon and his TFL team haven’t shown much concern for LUNC and UST since they launched Terra 2.0, the community is still concerned.

Various proposals have been put forward, with the latest ones focusing on burning LUNC to reduce supply and prop up the price.

A recent proposal suggested that 1.2% of all LUNC transactions should be burned. This proposal has since been successfully passed with an overwhelming 83% YES votes. Another new proposal has been put forward further to burn 50% of all LUNC transaction fees. Notably, this will differ from the previous 1.2% burn that targeted transactions themselves as opposed to transaction fees.

Burn Mechanism Not On Exchanges

It’s worth noting that the 50% burn on transaction fees will not be implanted on exchanges as opposed to the 1.2% burn on all transactions everywhere. This is because the transaction fees can only be deducted from the Terra native chain.

According to the proposal, out of the 50% transaction fees in question, 35% will be burned via community pools every month, and 10% will be used to fund Terra devs. In comparison, the remaining 5% will be retained to support the development of Terra Classic core systems. Proposer rewards will also be increased.

The proposal says:

“Distribute 50% transaction fees to the community pool (35% to be burned via monthly community pool proposals; 10% airdropped to ecosystem devs, 5% retained for core Terra Classic development) and increase ‘Base Proposer’ and ‘Bonus Proposer’ reward from 0.01 and 0.04 to 0.03 and 0.12 respectively.”

At the time of this writing, the new proposal records 93.2%, with 77.4 million LUNA committed in support from voters. Only about 0.3% voted NO, with just about 245,751 LUNA committed. Roughly 6.4% abstained from the vote with 5.2 million LUNA. The voting deadline is set for Wednesday, 15th, 2022.

lunc new burn proposal
image source: https://stake.id/#/proposal/4080

Why Is LUNC Being Burned?

The collapse of Terra led to trillions of new LUNA tokens being minted. UST lost its USD peg while LUNA (now LUNC) price dipped below zero. Since then, the community has sought ways to reduce the supply. Currently, there are around 7 trillion LUNC. This supply is too much for a troubled coin. The burning mechanisms are meant to minimize this supply and trigger the market forces of demand to increase the price.

At the time of writing, the new proposal records 93% support from voters, with the voting deadline set for Wednesday 15th, 2022.

Elon Musk Reacts to Ex-Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey’s Bitcoin Web5 Project, Says Dogecoin’s Web69 Will Be Awesome

Lele Jima
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Elon Musk Reacts to Ex-Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey’s Bitcoin Web5 Project, Says Dogecoin’s Web69 Will Be Awesome

The Tesla exec has reacted to reports of Dorsey building a Web5 decentralized web that will focus solely on Bitcoin.


The cryptocurrency community has reacted positively to the news that TBD, a subsidiary of Block Inc., plans to create a new decentralized web that will be centered on Bitcoin (BTC).

According to an announcement yesterday, the firm will build a decentralized web dubbed “Web5,” a project that is in line with Block’s founder Jack Dorsey’s vision of Bitcoin playing an integral part in the evolution of the internet.

While the world is still focused on Web3, which uses blockchain technology to decentralize the internet, Dorsey is already making moves to build Web5, which is tipped to focus on just one blockchain – Bitcoin.

Commenting on the news of Dorsey’s plans to build Web5, a Dogecoin enthusiast with the Twitter username @wandrinstar, took to the microblogging platform to say:

“If Jack and Bitcoin can create web5 then Dogecoin can create web69.”

Dorsey and Musk’s Reaction

The tweet forced a response from Dorsey, the former CEO and co-founder of Twitter, as he called on Tesla founder Elon Musk to give his opinion on the post.

“Your MOve @elonmusk”

Reacting to the development, Musk, who has always been a proponent of Dogecoin and has been pushing for the widespread adoption of the cryptocurrency to enable it to become the currency of the internet, stated that Web69 will be awesome.

While Dorsey is entirely focused on Bitcoin, Musk’s crypto attention is centered on BTC and Dogecoin both.

Here’s Why Terra And Do Kwon Cannot Prevent Themselves From Falling Under The Regulatory Purview of US SEC

Mark Brennan
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Here’s Why Terra And Do Kwon Cannot Prevent Themselves From Falling Under The Regulatory Purview of US SEC

Terra’s Operations Fall Under the Regulatory Purview of the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) by US laws.


Contrary to arguments that the SEC does not have jurisdiction over Terra, the regulator has the right to investigate the company based on the reasons.

There has been a debate about whether the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has the right to investigate TerraForm Labs (TFL) and its CEO, Do Kwon.

Debate Over SEC’s Jurisdiction Over Terra

It is noteworthy that the debate started following news that a United States Court of Appeal dismissed moves made by Kwon and the company to stop the SEC from investigating Terra.

The debate was mainly held on Twitter, with many users saying the company does not fall under the regulatory purview of the SEC because it is not based there.

Terra Falls Under SEC’s Oversight

In contrast to this argument, the Securities and Exchange Commission has the right to investigate TFL’s execs and operations for multiple reasons.

First) Terra’s tokens, including UST and LUNA, were sold across different exchanges in various parts of the world, including the United States. Exchanges such as Binance.US, Coinbase, and Gemini had Terra ecosystem tokens listed on their trading platforms before the devastating crash occurred.

Second) The vast majority of users on these U.S.-based exchanges are mainly citizens of the country, and they also had a fair share of the massive plunge in Terra ecosystem tokens.

Third) Throughout TFL’s operation, the firm had a significant number of U.S.-based employees and law firms under its payroll, which further exposed the company to regulatory oversight of the Securities and Exchange Commission.

As reported, some of Terra’s employees resident in the United States revealed to the Securities and Exchange Commission that the company Kwon was involved in a massive money laundering scheme that saw him cash out $80 million weekly to foreign accounts.

Furthermore, Terra’s stablecoin TerraUSD (UST) was pegged to the United States Dollar on a 1:1 ratio, which gave many U.S. investors the idea that the token can be trusted, thus luring more people into adopting the digital currency.

Bloomberg confirms the reports that the “US Securities and Exchange Commission is investigating whether the marketing of the TerraUSD stable coin before it crashed last month violated federal investor-protection regulations.”

Following a 1946 US Supreme Court ruling, an asset class has been deemed a security if investors purchase it to fund a company and “with the intention of profiting from the efforts of those involved in it.” Furthermore, the SEC has also asserted that holding assets on certain occasions may see a crypto firm face investment-company structures.

With the U.S. Court of Appeal ordering Terra and its executives to heed the subpoena from the SEC in another crypto project Mirror Protocol, it is only advisable that they comply before things get complicated, especially as the project is trying to recover from the losses it suffered last month.

While Terra is avoiding the SEC’s subpoena, TFL is being heavily investigated for different issues, including reports that the company embezzled its Bitcoin reserves.

The US is very strict in protecting investors and there are zero chances Terra is going to prevent herself from SEC wrath. Meanwhile, news of the Terra tokens crash is no longer new as many investors are yet to recover from the devastating losses they suffered last month.

Dogecoin Founder Says He is Not Surprised By Allegations About Terra Founder Cashing Out $80M Prior To LUNA Crash

Albert Brown
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Dogecoin Founder Says He is Not Surprised By Allegations About Terra Founder Cashing Out $80M Prior To LUNA Crash

 

Industry players are not shocked by claims that Do Kwon laundered Terra funds.



Do Kwon’s reputation may be on its way to the gutters, but very few people would have expected other industry developers and players to not support him, even for a while. However, that’s not what’s happening. Do Kwon has managed to alienate his fellow developers to a point where all allegations against him are no longer shocking.

A case in point is the latest allegations against him and linking him to a TFL money laundering scheme.

As reported by the TheCryptoBasic, employees from TFL were being interviewed by the US SEC, and they had confirmed Do Kwon’s embezzlement of Terra’s funds, Do Kwon transferred funds to the tune of $80 million a month from company funds to secret crypto wallets and foreign bank accounts. But people like Dogecoin creator Billy Markus weren’t surprised at all.

Billy tweeted a somewhat sarcastic GIF pretending to be shocked by the allegations.

The reason why doge founder is not shocked is that he firmly believes, these days “Every crypto Project is Made to Enrich Creators At Expense of Community” 

Recently doge founder criticized Luna 2.0, saying: “luna 2.0 will show the world just how truly dumb crypto gamblers really are.”

Do Kwon Vs., Bernie Madoff

Other users took their chance to draw a comparison between Do Kwon and Bernie Madoff. In 2009, Madoff was responsible for a $60 billion loss of investors’ money. He ended up with a 150-year prison sentence. In 2022, Do Kwon lost the same amount of investors’ funds when Luna and UST crashed in May.

According to the employees interviewed by the SEC, Do Kwon was transferring $80 million of Terra funds every month before Luna collapsed. Blockstream’s Adam Back thinks these actions contributed significantly to the collapse of the Terra ecosystem.

He said,

“Just to say 12 x $80m = $1bil. That level of selling and the leverage increase resulting may have materially contributed to the collapse depending on the market cap over time.”

SEC On Do Kwon’s Neck

Do Kwon and TFL are currently being investigated by the SEC. An appeal they lodged against an earlier SEC subpoena was squashed by the court of appeal a few days ago. That means that Kwon is still in legal trouble in the US. The case is about whether he used the Mirror Protocol to pass off and sell UST as unregistered security in the US. Kwon maintains that the SEC has no jurisdiction to charge him.

However, things are different where he is in South Korea. The SK taxman is demanding a $78 million settlement for tax evasion. The SK government is also investigating Kwon and TFL about the Terra collapse and allegations of embezzling the reserve funds meant for maintaining the UST peg.

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