Home Blog Page 2371

Attorney John Deaton Files A Motion to Represent 67,000 XRP Investors in Ripple v. SEC Lawsuit 

Mark Brennan
-
0
Attorney John Deaton Files A Motion to Represent 67,000 XRP Investors in Ripple v. SEC Lawsuit 

The popular attorney is requesting the court’s approval to represent over 67,000 XRP investors affected by the Ripple v. SEC lawsuit.


Attorney John Deaton, one of the most outspoken lawyers in the Ripple v. SEC lawsuit, is seeking to be granted amici status that will enable him to represent 67,300 XRP holders in the ongoing legal battle.

According to a recent motion, attorney Deaton is requesting permission from Judge Sarah Netburn to get the necessary approval to file a brief on behalf of the 67,000 XRP investors.

As part of the brief, the outspoken attorney plans to respond to a report from one of SEC’s experts, Patrick B. Doody, who claims to know what motivated XRP investors into purchasing the asset class during the 2013 Initial Coin Offering (ICO).

Attorney Deaton Slams SEC’s Expert

Prior to the recent motion, attorney Deaton and other cryptocurrency and legal experts had slammed Doody’s testimony, saying the SEC’s expert never engaged any XRP investor in a conversation before arriving at the conclusion he gave in court.

Attorney Deaton argued that if Doody spoke with XRP investors as he claimed, he would know that the ongoing lawsuit is affecting the asset class’s price, which has continued to plunge holders into serious losses.

XRP’s Massive Dip Since Lawsuit

Recall that before talks of Ripple breaching the United States securities laws, XRP traded at an all-time high of nearly $4.

However, with the SEC suggesting that Ripple may have breached its laws through its 2013 ICO, the cryptocurrency’s value began to dip to below $0.4 earlier this month.

At the time of writing, XRP is changing hands around $0.428 across major exchanges, according to data on Coingecko.

Commenting on the development, attorney Jeremy Hogan said:

“John Deaton is marching into Court! The SEC wants an “expert” witness to give testimony about what XRP holders were thinking when they bought XRP. Deaton represents 67k ACTUAL XRP HOLDERS and wants to present what they were ACTUALLY thinking. SO of course, the SEC opposes it,” adding:

Number Of Bitcoin Holders With More Than 1 BTC Hits A New High

Albert Brown
-
0
Number Of Bitcoin Holders With More Than 1 BTC Hits A New High

 

The number Of Bitcoin HODLers Hits A New High As Addresses With More Than 1 BTC Increase.


 

While the crypto market hasn’t been a rosy field of late, Bitcoin fans and investors are still unfazed. Apparently, a good number of Bitcoin holders have managed to stay through with their stash for a whole year.

Data released by IntoTheBlock show that Bitcoin’s growth has continued through the upheavals in the market. The recent undesirable price action hasn’t fettered investor confidence in the top coin.

 

HODLers At ATH

According to the released information, the number of BTC hodlers who have kept their stash intact for a year has increased and is now at its highest ever. There are around 27.65M Bitcoin addresses containing around 12.66 million coins held for a year or more.

From an optimistic standpoint, this revelation points to an increase in market resilience on the part of Bitcoin. BTC has battled negative sentiments over the years, even when governments and traditional financial institutions were against it.

Some governments are now warming up to the crypto idea while institutional funds are following into the BTC market.

This same kind of resilience seems to be keeping the Bitcoin market strong and unshaken amid an extensive price crash that has affected the entire crypto market.

More Wallets With More Than 1 BTC

As if to entrench the point mentioned above, the BTC community seems to be increasing the wallet size.

In the recent past, most of the wallets contained fractions of a Bitcoin. Now, as has been reported, there are close to a million wallets holding a whole Bitcoin each. They’re precisely 844,906 Bitcoin wallets. This may be an indication of an increase in holding appetite by Bitcoin investors.

bitcoin holders all time high

Image Source: Twitter

Holding has been a major point popularized by various investors as the ultimate use of Bitcoin as a store of value.

Granted, inflation has had a bad effect on the global economy and governments have made it worse by printing vast amounts of fiat currencies.

Bitcoin has been hailed as the answer to these negative effects to preserve wealth. As such, the holding culture may be driven by this point of view. At the moment, Bitcoin is still at the top and trading at around $30.4k, with a total market cap of $578 billion.

Binance Promoted UST and LUNA As “Safe Investments” Weeks Before Terra Crashed 

Albert Brown
-
0
Binance Promoted UST and LUNA As “Safe Investments” Weeks Before Terra Crashed 

Recent developments suggest that Binance also contributed to the widespread adoption of Terra tokens. 

Today, the Financial Times disclosed that Binance, the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchange by trade volume, contributed to promoting Terra’s Anchor Yield program, which lured many investors into adopting the UST stablecoin that collapsed earlier this month.

According to the report, Binance had advertised the TerraUSD (UST) Anchor program on its Telegram page as a safe investment for investors to earn huge returns.

Binance Promoted the Tokens on Telegram

Binance described the scheme as a “safe and happy opportunity” that its clients can venture into in order to earn a 20% mouthwatering profit.

Since the message was posted on the exchange’s Telegram official page, it has been viewed more than 117,000 times by cryptocurrency enthusiasts, who are members of the trading platform’s Telegram account.

No Disclosure Added

Binance’s promotion of UST investment is not the main issue. However, the world’s largest exchange failed to include a disclosure illustrating the risks associated with cryptocurrency investments.

It is worth noting that Terra’s Anchor platform did specify the risks related to cryptos, saying: “cryptocurrency trading is subject to high market risk.”

Aside from the UST investment ads posted by Binance last month, the exchange also promoted Terra (LUNA) staking scheme last year, claiming the investment is safe for investors to venture into.

Binance told the Financial Times “We are now reviewing how campaigns for projects, such as Luna, are evaluated prior to them being advertised”.

Terra Ecosystem Collapse

Unfortunately, things didn’t go as advertised by the world’s largest exchange, as the token ended up suffering one of the biggest crashes since the inception of the cryptocurrency industry.

Both LUNA and UST had suffered massive losses that saw over $80 billion of valuation wiped out in two weeks.

The plunge of UST and LUNA affected a larger part of the market with many believing that Binance played a pivotal role in the widespread adoption of the tokens.

Binance is an established player in the cryptocurrency market and its promotion of any coin will be considered safe by investors.

Following the plunge in Terra ecosystem tokens, Binance told the Financial Times that it is reviewing its procedures for evaluating crypto campaigns before they are advertised to the public.

Binance Advocating for Small Traders

Many investors, including Binance, were largely hit by the collapse of Terra tokens. Binance, which received 15 million LUNA tokens in 2019 for its $3 million investment in the project, saw its investment surge to a high of $1.6 billion last month, before falling to $3,000 last week.

To date, Binance feels guilty for its advertisement of Terra tokens and has constantly criticized the Terra team for the way it is handling the situation.

CZ had previously called on the company to focus on making small traders whole before it would consider major investors.

However, Terra is looking to compensate everyone at the same time. The company’s proposal to create a new chain and new tokens looks like it will be passed on May 27, 2022, with investors expected to receive new airdropped tokens.

Unlike Coinbase, CZ Says Binance Will Refund Users First Before Shareholders If the Exchange Goes Bankrupt 

Mark Brennan
-
0
Unlike Coinbase, CZ Says Binance Will Refund Users First Before Shareholders If the Exchange Goes Bankrupt 

Binance said it will put the interest of its users first before its shareholders in the event that the exchange goes bankrupt.


 

Following the recent debate over Coinbase’s user refund policy in the event of a bankruptcy, Binance, the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchange by trade volume, has disclosed that it will always put its users’ interests first over shareholders’. 

The CEO and founder of Binance, Changpeng Zhao popularly referred to as CZ noted in a now deleted Ask Me Anything (AMA) session that if the exchange ever goes bankrupt, it would first of all refund its users before its shareholders. 

“Funds would be refunded to users first, before any shareholders, ”CZ was quoted as saying in the AMA session. 

Coinbase Under Fire Over Its Disclosure

This comes less than two weeks after the San Francisco-based cryptocurrency Coinbase declared in its Q1 2022 financial report that should it go bankrupt, it would hold on to customers’ funds as part of its property while referring to these users as “unsecured creditors.” 

The caveat prompted many cryptocurrency experts to call on Coinbase users to remove their funds from the exchange as they may lose their funds to the trading platform if it ever goes bankrupt. 

CZ’s Concerns for Retail Investors

CZ has always been concerned about the well-being of retail users over major investors. Following the recent collapse of the TerraForm Labs ecosystem tokens, CZ urged the Terra team to make small investors whole before taking care of its large investors. 

Binance’s CEO made this suggestion despite seeing its $1.6 billion worth of LUNA holdings turn to $3,000, following the crash of the crypto’s price. 

“To lead by example on PROTECTING USERS, Binance will let this go and ask the Terra project team to compensate the retail users first, Binance last, if ever,” CZ said in a tweet last week. 

Aside from the fact that Binance will prioritize its users before shareholders in the event that the exchange goes bankrupt, CZ also talked about other issues, including Terra. 

It is no longer news that CZ is furious with the Terra team. He has publicly condemned how the firm handled the de-peg of its stable coin, resulting in a massive fall in crypto prices. 

According to the Binance CEO, investors would not have suffered major losses if only Terra deployed its reserve earlier than it did. 

Top Crypto Exchange Adds LUNA Spot Trading Pair Against USDC

Mark Brennan
-
0
Top Crypto Exchange Adds LUNA Spot Trading Pair Against USDC

 

Luna New Trading Pair has been Listed On OKX – Can This Save Terra?


 

It’s good news for the Terra community as Luna scores a new trading pair listing on one of the top crypto exchanges. OKX is the first of the exchanges to extend a helping hand for Luna as the crypto struggles to regain ground after days of being battered by bears.

OKX released a statement announcing its decision to list a Luna/USDC spot trading pair along with a few others including Solana, DOGE, FIL, NEAR, DOT, APE, AVAX, and SHIB. All the cryptos listed have a USDC as part of their trading pair. As for LUNA, this is great news that could potentially turn things around for the Terra ecosystem.

Luna Exposed To Larger Market

For one, OKX is a large crypto exchange sitting among the market’s top most popular and best exchanges. A quick look at the list of exchanges currently in operation reveals that OKX is at number 19 in the charts, with an impressive trading volume of around $1.5 billion. This indicates that it’s a really busy exchange. There are currently over 300 crypto exchanges in the market, and that makes OKX’s 19th position a big deal.

With the listing, Luna will be exposed to a large user base on a busy exchange, and this could attract more attention to it. It’s worth noting that part of the reason the listing is very consequential is that some crypto exchanges delisted Luna in the wake of its market crash.

Terra 2.0 In The Works

Meanwhile, the Terra team is working on a new Terra chain that will be implemented as a hard fork of the original Luna chain. New Luna tokens will be created and airdropped to the community. It’s not yet clear when this plan will be accomplished or whether the OKX listing will be of any effect.

Shiba Inu Payments Can Now Be Accepted By Thousands Of Restaurants In More Than 60 Countries

Zabi
-
0
Shiba Inu Payments Can Now Be Accepted By Thousands Of Restaurants In More Than 60 Countries

 

Shiba Inu as a means of payment is becoming viral.



Shiba Inu (SHIB) Can Now Be Accepted as Payment in Thousands of Restaurants in 65 Countries amid Restaurant Software Giant, Lavu Enables Crypto Payments.

Thousands of eateries in more than 65 countries will now be able to accept Shiba Inu (SHIB) as payment along with other popular cryptocurrencies including several stablecoins.

This becomes possible after the announcement of a new cross-distribution partnership between Lavu, major global restaurant software and payments solution provider, and Verifone, a global FinTech leader, and payment solution provider.

Through this strategic partnership, Lavu’s all-in-one restaurant software suite will be seamlessly incorporated with Verifone’s FLEX payment solution, allowing millions of restaurants based in more than 65 countries to offer a unique point of sale (POS) solution with multiple modern payment methods to their customers, including cryptocurrencies.

The partnership is reported to start with the Verifone Engage e285 device equipped with Lavu’s tablet-based POS.

With Bitcoin (BTC), Ethereum (ETH), Litecoin (LTC), Dogecoin (DOGE), Shiba Inu (SHIB), and several USD-pegged stablecoins among the options available, both sets of consumers may use crypto wallets and other payment systems like Alipay, Affirm, PayPal, Venmo, WeChat Pay, Klarna, Swish, and Vipps to pay for goods and services.

The mainstream adoption of Shiba Inu (SHIB) is on the rise.

Formerly on May 20, Tag Heuer, the luxury watchmaker added support for Shiba Inu (SHIB) along with 12 other major cryptocurrencies on its own US-based e-commerce platform.

French Fashion House Balenciaga To Accept Bitcoin, Ethereum And Shiba Inu Payments in the United States 

Albert Brown
-
0
French Fashion House Balenciaga To Accept Bitcoin, Ethereum And Shiba Inu Payments in the United States 

You can now purchase your fashion goods from Balenciaga using Bitcoin and Ethereum.


Balenciaga has become the latest fashion brand to announce it has started accepting cryptocurrency payments across its flagship stores in the United States.

According to a Women’s Wear Daily report, the French fashion brand will be accepting Bitcoin (BTC) and Ethereum (ETH) payments in selected U.S. stores, including its branches at Madison Avenue New York, and Rodeo Drive in Beverly Hills, as well as its online store www.balenciaga.com.

Balenciaga to Expand the Offering

The company disclosed that it will include its stores in other regions in the near future following customers’ reactions to the initiative.

Furthermore, while Balenciaga has started accepting bitcoin and Ethereum payments, the company noted that it will add other digital currencies to the list once it selects a cryptocurrency payment provider.

Once Balenciaga chooses a payment provider like BitPay, the list of supported cryptocurrencies may expand to include many digital currencies, including Shiba Inu (SHIB), Dogecoin (DOGE), and Cardano (ADA).

Balenciaga Unbothered About Crypto Volatility

The development does not seem to be made at the perfect time, given that the total cryptocurrency market is down by a large margin, with over $1 trillion wiped off from the market in the last two weeks.

Concerns about massive volatility associated with cryptocurrencies have been raised in the past few weeks, as investors continue to thread carefully to mitigate their losses.

Interestingly, Balenciaga is unbothered about the volatile nature of cryptocurrencies, as the popular fashion brand disclosed that it is “thinking long-term about crypto,” adding that “fluctuations in currency value are nothing new.”

Fashion Brands Accept Cryptocurrency Payments

The development comes as many fashion brands continue to enter the cryptocurrency sector.

As reported by TheCryptoBasic, fashion brands like Gucci and TAG Heuer, among others, have delved into the cryptocurrency industry, as the demand for the nascent asset class surges over the years.

While most brands accept over five cryptocurrency assets as payment options, Balenciaga said it will begin its crypto journey with the market’s two largest cryptocurrencies.

However, it is expected that the list of cryptocurrencies that Balenciaga will accept will increase above five when it eventually selects a payment provider like BitPay.

Breaking: Old Video Discloses Terra Founder Do Kwon Saying He Has a Kill Switch For The LUNA Network

Mark Brennan
-
0
Breaking: Old Video Discloses Terra Founder Do Kwon Saying He Has a Kill Switch For The LUNA Network

 

Old Video Reveals Terra Founder Do Kwon Talking About The Kill Switch For The LUNA Network.



The Terra ecosystem is still reeling in pain after the recent price crash that affected Luna and UST.

The community is still waiting for Do Kwon’s team to implement a workable solution to restore the network to its previous glory. Luna was among the top 20 best crypto networks in the industry. Today, it’s at position 222 in the charts and the price is at $0.00019.

An old video of Do Kwon talking about Terra has now resurfaced and threw a spanner in the works. In the video, Kwon is heard saying that Terra has a kill switch for the network. He called it a “Protocol Armageddon.”

“Protocol Armageddon”

Do Kwon can be seen and heard in the video explaining how the kill switch would work. He says that were the kill switch to be activated, the Terra ecosystem would end within 24 hours. The company would burn the bridges and cut all ties with everyone after selling all its assets.

He said,

“We have sort of something called Protocol Armageddon at the company. So what Protocol Armageddon is, is that it’s a Kill Switch. So whenever we feel like we’re no longer in a position to be able to best serve the community, we pull the trigger and in 24-hours we’re gone. We burn all of our assets, we cut all of our ties, and it’s nothing. So that’s just in case things move a little bit faster than we’re anticipating.”

This particular clip is now a subject of intense backlash within the crypto community, with a lot of people expressing their disappointment with Do Kwon and his team.

 

Did He Do It?

While the video circulates, speculations are abounding on whether Do Kwon predicted the collapse of the Terra ecosystem and whether he may have played a part in it. In another video, Do Kwon is seen and heard saying that it’s exciting to start from nothing and end with nothing. He calls it “the cycle of life.” The Terra found goes on to opine that “that is where I want to be.”

A user @TajoCrypto comments “Apart from Do Kwon saying that Terra has a kill switch, he also said that it’s exciting to start with nothing and end with nothing. Those were when he believed he was in total control of everything happening in Luna and that his tech can only be stopped by him.”

Terra (LUNA) Market Cap Surges Above $1 Billion As Coin Gradually Rises From The Dust

Lele Jima
-
0
Terra (LUNA) Market Cap Surges Above $1 Billion As Coin Gradually Rises From The Dust

Terra (LUNA) Market Cap Surges Above $1 Billion As Investors Prepare to Be Made “Whole.”


Terra (LUNA) is gradually rising from the dust after its market capitalization and price tanked over a week ago.

The cryptocurrency, which saw its price fall to a low of $0.00000099 on May 13, 2022, has picked up momentum once again as the Terra team makes necessary preparations to make investors whole again.

As the price of LUNA tanked to a low of $0.00000099 on May 13, 2022, its market capitalization also slumped below $60 million, with investors converting the cryptocurrency to stablecoins.

Interestingly, the cryptocurrency’s market capitalization has recorded a massive surge above $1 billion as investors flock to purchase the cryptocurrency to become beneficiaries of the upcoming LUNA airdrop.

Meanwhile, as the date for LUNA airdrops draws closer, investors have embarked on a widespread purchase of the cryptocurrency, thus pushing its price and market capitalization to soar tremendously.

In the past 48 hours, LUNA has gone up over 100% in price, from a low of $0.0001037 to a high of $0.0002159. At press time, the price has fallen slightly to $0.000193. That surge in price helped the market cap as at press time, LUNA’s market capitalization currently sits at $1.2 billion, according to data on cryptocurrency aggregator platform Coingecko.

LUNA Price Surges

The rapid increase of LUNA’s market valuation has also contributed positively to the price of the asset class. Following the surge of LUNA’s market cap, the token price has skyrocketed from its May 13 low of $0.0000009 to $0.000193, which suggests that LUNA has only three zeros to eliminate before it reaches $1.

While it is possible that LUNA could surge to $1 before the upcoming Terra 2.0 goes live on May 27, 2022, its circulating supply is not helping matters.

After LUNA fell from glory, many investors withdrew the token from different pools and dumped them in the market, which further contributed to its price crash.

In just two weeks, LUNA’s circulating supply surged from 300 million tokens to nearly 7 trillion. There are currently 6.53 trillion LUNA tokens in circulation at press time, which raised further doubt about the possibility that LUNA would hit $1 before the new Terra chain is born.

UST’s Market Cap Stagnant

Meanwhile, Terra’s flagship stablecoin TerraUSD (UST) struggles to regain its peg to the U.S. dollar. The stablecoin is trading at around $0.06 across exchanges with a market capitalization of $746 million.

UST is down 2.6% in the last 24 hours, with very meager activity recorded for the stablecoin in the past day.

The stablecoin has not recorded a significant surge in market capitalization like LUNA because the team is more focused on compensating the latter’s investors.

As reported, most Terra investors favor creating a new chain and LUNA tokens without the algorithmic stable coin.

However, the proposal to burn UST failed to execute due to technical issues, as the team made another effort at making the stable coin valuable once again.

Community Burns 580 Million Shiba Inu In 24 Hours, 22 Billion In A Week: Report

Zabi
-
0
Community Burns 580 Million Shiba Inu In 24 Hours, 22 Billion In A Week: Report

 

SHIB Community Burns 580 Million Shiba Inu In 24 Hours, 22 Billion In A Week.



580.63 Million Shiba Inu (SHIB) Burnt within the Past 24 Hours and 22.20 Billion in Last Week.

1Cent token and Travis Johnson’s SHIB Burn Games are among the top SHIB Burn contributors of the Week. One Mysterious wallet sent 10 Billion SHIB to a dead wallet in one significant transaction. SHIB Burn Portal reaches a major milestone as over 50 Billion SHIB tokens have been destroyed since launch.

The burn rate of Shiba Inu (SHIB) increased this week’s manifolds as the Community cheered the distribution of the first ShibaBurn rewards on May 17th (Tuesday).

As per Shibaburn.com, the SHIB Army has sent a whopping total of 22,200,398,699 (22.20B) SHIB tokens to the dead wallet in the last seven days through 497 separate transactions.

Top SHIB Burner of the Week: Mysterious wallet

Following the distribution of ShibaBurn rewards, one mysterious wallet becomes active and has created a history by sending 10 billion SHIB, worth $124,300 to the dead wallet in a single significant transaction. This marks not only the largest community-led burn in history so far, but the biggest one in a single transaction, and also the biggest one since the Burn Portal launch.

The mysterious wallet first burned 1,325,571,332 (1.32B) SHIB, worth $32,346 in two separate transactions, on April 24, 2022 (the very next day of the SHIB Burn Portal Launch).

Since then, the wallet has sent a total of 11,325,571,332 (11.32B) SHIB, worth $156,646 to the dead wallet in three separate transactions.

1CENT Weekly BURN EVENT:

SHIB-inspired token, “1Cent” stands at the top 2nd biggest SHIB Burner of the week. The team behind the token organized its Weekly Burn Event on Monday. Through this event, the 1Cent token has sent 100,135,030 (100.13M) SHIB, worth only $1204 to the dead wallet, in one significant transaction.

Soon after the tweet, the transaction link was updated on the token official website as a “Proof of Burn.” The website claims that the project has sent a whopping total of 2,086,756,995 (2.08B) SHIB to a dead wallet since March 14th, 2022.

Past 24 Hour Burn:

Besides weekly burns, 580,638,304 (580.63M) SHIB tokens have been permanently removed from circulation by Shiba Inu Community through 51 separate transactions in the last 24 hours, with the help of the SHIB Burn Portal, Shibburn.com reports

Travis Johnson’s SHIB Burn Games made the single largest burn transaction, including over 54 million Shiba Inu tokens, and is recognized as one of the top SHIB Burners for the day.

Travis Johnson’s SHIB Burn Games Weekly BURN EVENT:

Travis Johnson’s SHIB Burn Games has organized its first-ever Weekly Burn Event on Sunday. Following the Burn Event, the company comes up with the update that they have burned a total of 54,917,856 SHIB, worth $649.13 through one transaction.

The company also has shared a few screenshots and a transaction link via tweet as a “Proof of Burn” with the community.

The company is contributing to Shiba Inu Burns since November 2021. The company is organizing its “Monthly Burn Party” on the 15th of every month. But following the announcement of the distribution of the first ShibaBurn rewards, the company decided to change its burning schedule i.e., SHIB Burn Games will now burn SHIB every week instead of once a month.

As per the company, it has burned a total of 1,981,210,929 (1.98B) SHIB tokens since November 2021.

The company has developed three games, including one of its famous Brick Buster. The other two games include Candy Trips and Zombie Assassins. All these games are available to play on Google App Store. As per the company’s official website, 100% of their ad revenue earned from games goes to SHIB Burn. Besides the Games, the company also has one official YouTube Channel named “ShibPlay” and various apps like ShibSphere available to download on Google App Store, all dedicated to SHIB Burn.

SHIB Burn Portal Reaches Major Milestone: 50 Billion SHIB Burnt

On Sunday, SHIB Burn Portal achieves a major milestone of burning 50 billion SHIB tokens, worth $579,500 (as of current price). This indicates the massive success of the Burn Portal as this milestone is achieved in less than a month.

1...2,3702,3712,372...2,634Page 2,371 of 2,634