17 Aug: Memecoin Mania!

By theinspired | Inspiration | 17 Aug 2023

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Welcome to Thursday Folks! Yesterday, Coinbase got approval to list futures which as seen as a major win amid the war on Crypto. Today the most covered news is about none other than a popular Memecoin called Shiba Inu. I shy away from even curating news around these puppy coins but I couldn't ignore all the publication talking about Shibarium mainnet launch on ETH's layer-2 scaling solution. The price of Bitcoin is currently trading at $28,522.99 and it finally dipped below $29K. Let's dive into the news...

The cryptocurrency market has taken a downward turn, triggered by Bitcoin’s (BTC) plunge to a new low of under $28,500. Bitcoin (BTC) and Ethereum (ETH), the two biggest cryptocurrencies by total market capitalization, keep displaying uncharacteristically anemic performance. The summer doldrums are hitting Bitcoin and Ethereum hard, (recording the lowest trading volume in recorded history) dampening the assets’ historic volatility to multi-year lows as the FED hints at more rate hikes. The net unrealized profit/loss (NUPL) metric, which measures the difference between the current market price of bitcoin and the price at which coins were last purchased, fell to 0.307, its lowest level since July 7.

On-chain data shows the Bitcoin exchange whale ratio has spiked, a sign that the whales may be selling now as two-thirds of leverage funds' positions are short, one observer said, noting the bearish bias of sophisticated traders. Bitcoin targeted two-month lows as United States inflation returned to spook cryptocurrency markets. However, the bullish trendline is still at play. Meanwhile, short-term Bitcoin (BTC) holders are unwilling to sell their BTC amid the ongoing crypto market doldrums, according to the analytics firm Glassnode. But, about $570 million in weekly BTC options expire on Friday, and the recent macro and crypto news events have further tilted the advantage to bearish traders.

Peter Brandt warns of Bitcoin bear trap as BTC dumps $1K daily and BTC price still has "heavy support" at the $28,000 mark, with confidence still in place that Bitcoin can avoid a deeper retracement. But, some investors burned in 2022 might not yet be willing to jump back into the space, while others likely “waiting on the sidelines” for a spot bitcoin ETF. Now, in an unexpected turn of events, renowned Bitcoin evangelist and advisor to El Salvador's president Max Keiser has taken a surprising stance on the future of Bitcoin. Keiser, who has long been a vocal advocate for the cryptocurrency, caught many of his followers off guard with a recent statement suggesting a bearish outlook.

Despite slumping in global crytocurrency markets, Bitcoin has jumped to new highs in Argentina after BTC-friendly presidential candidate Javier Milei won the primary vote on Aug. 13. Derivatives marketplace CME Group is launching Bitcoin reference rates for the Asia Pacific region, in another sign of growing institutional interest in crypto from Asia. El Salvadorian school kids as young as 12 years old are being orange-pilled — taught to send their first Bitcoin transaction by visiting members of El Salvador’s Bitcoin Beach.

MIND BLOWN: German-born programmer and Coil CEO Stefan Thomas has continued to find himself at a crossroads, with only two attempts left to crack a code that holds the potential to unlock a fortune of staggering proportions after he forgot his password.

Valkyrie filed for an ether futures ETF on Wednesday, titled the Valkyrie Ethereum Strategy ETF. Ethereum price could dump one last time before ‘giga pump.’ Crypto exchange BIT has introduced XRP options trading after Ripple’s partial court win boosted market interest. Blockchain analytics platform Santiment says deep-pocketed investors are accumulating massive amounts of Cardano (ADA) despite a stalled crypto market.

Shiba Inu launched the Shibarium mainnet, an Ethereum layer-2 scaling solution, after months of testing that saw millions of users participate and 21 million wallets created. However, Shiba Inu's Lucie warns community of possible negative sides of using Shibarium, similar to other blockchains. Shibarium’s launch causes stir as community slams “non-functional” RPC, “awful” blockchain explorer, and an overall “sloppy” experience as at least $1.7 million worth of ETH is currently stuck in Shibarium after the launch. Santiment blockchain data company has issued an X post, stating that SHIB, XRP and two other cryptocurrency projects have seen major rises in the transaction activity of whales.

Tether is discontinuing USDT support for Kusama, Bitcoin Cash SLP and Omni (Bitcoin) implementations. U.S.-based Coinbase is suspending trading of USDT, RAI and DAI on August 31, the company said.

PayPal’s stablecoin sparked conversations over traditional finance’s growing interaction with the crypto space, stablecoin regulations and more.

The second-largest decentralized exchange on the newly released Base blockchain – RocketSwap – announced eliminating any existing high risks and vulnerabilities a day after sustaining a “brute force hack of the server” where the platform stored its private keys. The legal team for Binance.US filed a motion for a protective order on Aug. 14, claiming it was necessary to protect the firm from the SEC’s “fishing expedition” during discovery. Coinbase has been shorting the crypto market, public reports indicate. Securitize's aim is to allow RIAs to offer their clients tokenized investments in alternative assets classes such as private equity, private credit, secondaries and real estate.

Something needs to get done to regulate crypto, Commodity Futures Trading Commission Chair Rostin Behnam said on a podcast this week, adding that the “fix” could be getting Congress to pass legislation. Ripple’s chief legal officer said no “extraordinary circumstance” in the case exists which warrants the court to accept the SEC’s request for leave. A federal judge will let the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission file a motion that, if granted, would allow it to appeal a ruling that XRP transactions through exchanges didn’t violate securities laws.

FTX, the troubled cryptocurrency exchange, and its CEO John J. Ray III have filed a motion seeking to reach a settlement of $176 million with Genesis entities. The outcome of Grayscale’s lawsuit against the SEC could significantly impact decisions about other pending spot bitcoin ETFs.

SwirlLand is just the latest scam, but Coinbase tells Cointelegraph it is developing a monitoring tool to warn users of anomalies. Police in Singapore said it seized 11 documents with information on cryptocurrency assets, but it’s unclear how much worth of crypto was involved.

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Sources:

Cryptocurrency Bitcoin (BTC) Crypto Ethereum (ETH) Crypto News

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theinspired

I've been aware of Bitcoin since 2011 and my desire is that you will be better informed about the digital asset industry by reading my daily post.

Inspiration

I've been exposed to the world of crypto since 2011. Now I use my knowledge to curate the most relevant news articles, podcast, videos, blogs and social media information to help you be in the know in Crypto!