Crypto Briefcase 2023
This section contains up-to-date news, cryptocurrency market analysis, public education and also a portfolio of investments
Stable Coin Market grew by over $600 million in October despite Ambiguous supply dynamics
The stable coin market grew by more than $600 million in October, despite Uncertain supply dynamics
The stable coin economy showed growth in October after several consecutive monthly declines. A total of $608 million was added to the fiat-linked token market over the past month. Despite the growth, the supply of six stablecoins from the top ten declined during the month.
The fiat-linked token market grew modestly in October, led by First Digital and Tether
Last month, the supply of tether (USDT), the largest stable coin by market capitalisation, increased by 1.9%, bringing its current market valuation to approximately $84.98 billion. At the end of September 30, 2023, the crypto asset had a market capitalisation of $83.22 billion.
Notably, the 456 cryptocurrency exchanges that include Tether saw a global trade volume of $19.79 billion in the stablecoin over the past 24 hours, representing more than 27% of the total $71.77 billion worth of transactions conducted across the ecosystem during the same period.
Analysts of ChainPlay service surveyed 1,503 cryptocurrency investors around the world. It turned out that the vast majority do not trust memecoins and consider them fraudulent.
In their report "State of Memecoin 2023" ChainPlay experts write that distrust of such cryptocurrencies is mainly due to lack of knowledge and information about meme tokens. Only 30% of respondents said that they consider such investments a reliable investment. The remaining 70% treat meme tokens as a scam. At the same time, 73% of investors said that investing in such coins is more like gambling.
At the same time, investing in meme cryptocurrencies is quite popular - the majority (53%) of investors believe that such tokens will grow significantly in value and can be used to make a profit before these tokens crash.
51% of investors devote less than an hour to looking for information about a new meme cryptocurrency. 55% of respondents said they mostly rely on luck when investing in tokens like PEPE or SHIB. 69% of investors invest in such cryptocurrencies just for fun and enjoyment. 64% expect high returns, while 61% of respondents invest for the sake of interest.
The CEO of US crypto exchange Coinbase discussed with the crypto community possible options for the near future, which will help make crypto asset payments instant and free worldwide.
Brian Armstrong tweeted that the next step in the development of the cryptocurrency industry will be to make crypto asset payments instant and free across the globe. Yes, this will require a lot of effort from market participants, including Coinbase, Armstrong said. It will need to integrate second-tier solutions to scale blockchains and make it easier for users to sign up for cryptocurrency platforms.
Cryptocurrency payments should cost users no more than one cent, and settlements should be done in about a second. If this is realized, many more payments will be made in cryptocurrencies, Armstrong is convinced.
"Today, cryptocurrencies have great potential to improve the international payment infrastructure. But this potential is not fully realized because we are still stuck on tier one solutions. Payments are like water, they flow along the path of least resistance," explains the Coinbase CEO.
MicroStrategy executive chairman Michael Saylor reacted to Armstrong's tweet. He is confident that Lightning Network will help with the task at hand.
I THINK THIS IS Golden Youth!🤔
Democratic U.S. presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. said he bought 14 BTC - two bitcoins for each of his seven children. Robert F. Kennedy Jr. said that the decision was made after many people criticized him for comments made at a bitcoin conference in Miami. As some people put it, "Kennedy Jr. supports a volatile commodity while not being in the game himself." The politician explained that immediately after this conference, he decided to gift two bitcoins each to his children. During a speech at the Bitcoin Miami Conference in May, the presidential candidate denied personal investments in cryptocurrency. It was later revealed that he owned between $100,001 and $250,000 worth of bitcoins at the end of June. However, if the politician had bought 14 BTC at an approximate rate of $26,800, the total value of those bitcoins would have exceeded $380,000 at the end of June. Kennedy Jr. has also spoken out about banning bitcoin mining in some U.S. states. Last year, the New York State Senate backed legislation for a two-year moratorium on mining out of concerns that bitcoin mining was negatively impacting the environment. However, Kennedy Jr. called such arguments unfounded.
Christy Felkins, an 8-year-old resident of the US state of Nevada, who ordered the murder of her ex-husband for bitcoins, was jailed for just five years. Felkins decided to kill her ex-husband back in 2016. She found the killer on a darknet site and offered him $5,000 worth of bitcoins for the man's elimination, and also promised to pay an additional $4,000 for the quick execution of the order. Christie asked the killer to stage a fake robbery for the purpose of conspiracy.
However, the portal in the dark segment of the Internet turned out to be fraudulent, and Felkins herself fell victim to con artists. But her misfortunes did not stop there - in 2020 the police found out about her criminal scheme and charged her. During the trial, the American admitted that she wanted to organize the murder of her husband during his trip to California. Apparently, the court took into account the absence of a crime as such and on July 20 passed a rather lenient sentence, sending her to prison for five years followed by three years of supervision.
NFT marketplace Oases has partnered with Vienna's Belvedere Gallery to put Austrian artist Gustav Klimt's "The Kiss" paintings on NFT's podge. This was announced to ForkLog by representatives of the company.
In February 2022, Belvedere Gallery and the artèQ investment fund launched The Kiss NFT project. As part of it, the museum divided a digital copy of the painting "The Kiss" into 10,000 unique fragments and put them up for sale as NFTs.
On the first day of the tokensale, users bought 1,730 NFTs worth over €3.2 million. The remaining tokens can be purchased on the Oases platform for Ethereum (ETH).
"Klimt created a universal allegorical statement about love as the central theme of human existence. Austria acquired the picture for the Belvedere Gallery in 1908, and it has been within the museum's walls ever since. Today, "The Kiss" is considered an icon of Viennese Art Nouveau and European modernism. It is one of the most famous works of art in the world," the Oases commented.
Gustav Klimt The Kiss Drop by Belvedere Museum & artèQ
Bitcoin exchange Binance is preparing to cut corporate benefits for employees, citing declining profits. This is reported by The Wall Street Journal.
As of June 19, the company stopped offering certain benefits, including reimbursement for mobile, fitness and remote work.
"Given the current market environment and regulatory climate, which has unfortunately resulted in lower profits, we must be more cautious with our spending," a spokesperson for the platform said in a statement.
Further cuts are also possible in the future, Binance clarified
Millions of dollars withdrawn from Multichain on Fantom
The tokens moved include $58 million in USDC Stablecoin, 1,020 bitcoins in the shell ($30.9 million), 7,200 wrapped ethers ($13.7 million) and $4 million in DAI Stablecoin. It also included additional tokens such as Chainlink, Curve DAO, YFI, Wootrade Network and nearly a quarter of UniDex's total offering.
Assets also appear to be moving over the Multichain Moonriver bridge, including $4.8 million and null million in dollars.
Dogechain's dog-themed blockchain has also witnessed a sudden movement of funds, with at least $660,000 in U.S. dollars sent to the same target wallet used to move funds from Moonriver.
To date, none of the funds have been transferred outside of the wallets to which they were originally moved. They have not been sold or transferred to a cryptocurrency mixing service.
Multichain has not made a statement regarding the movement of funds. The Fantom Foundation said it was aware of "the situation unfolding at Multichain Bridge."
"We are actively assessing the circumstances and will provide an update as soon as we have something to share," the statement said.
The EU suspects Binance subsidiaries of illegal activities in Ireland and Malta. This is reported by knowledgeable Protos sources. According to the sources, the company has been faking accounts and transactions in several EU jurisdictions.
Also money of clients from different countries was mixed up to mislead regulators and EU tax services. Recall that the SEC accuses the exchange of numerous violations in the U.S.
It is worth noting that the official reports do not explain the companies' income, and the firms themselves have no active activities that generate income. EU investigators suggest that the exchange purposely overstated the number of staff of the companies, combining this figure with freelancers who work on a contracting basis. The exchange also does not have licenses to operate in Ireland, and Malta.
Binance Holdings (Ireland) includes several other companies as subsidiaries, including another company in Ireland called Binance (Services) Holdings. It owns Binance companies registered in Malta.
Regulators from the EU have already received inquiries from the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) on the activities of Binance in the European region. At the moment EU regulators are considering all the circumstances of the case, so they have not yet responded to SEC requests for information on the activities of the exchange.
