Crypto Guides, Knowledge & Insights

Why Ethereum price at $600 seems more plausible than $3,000

Ethereum price has flipped bearish from a macro perspective after creating a second lower low at $1,700.　　Investors should be prepared for a worst-case scenario that puts ETH at $600.　　A three-day candlestick close above $3,396 will invalidate the bearish thesis. 　　Ethereum price is in a tough spot despite the recent crash and indicates that a further downtrend is on the cards. The case for a bullish trend will only be revived after ETH produces a higher high from a macro perspective. From a fundamental point of view, increasing competition has recently capped Ethereum blockchain upside, but user share dominance and further cycle improvements allow for high upside.Mixed views on Ethereum on “State of Crypto” report　　With this regard, in a recent report on the “2022 State of Crypto,” popular tech VC firm a16z outlined its views on Ethereum and its leadership. The report by the Sillicon Valley company states that “users are willing to pay an average of $15 million in gas fees per day despite the massive number of competitor blockchains.” Additionally, this a16z report mentioned how this popularity is a “double-edged sword” as the Ethereum blockchain has always preferred decentralization over “security,” allowing other layer-2 scaling solutions to siphon its

2022-05-18Deep Dive

Terra’s Legal Team Resigns in Wake of UST, LUNA Collapse

The industry-wide unrest generated by Terra’s collapse last week continues to reverberate—this time within the company’s own walls.　　Terra’s in-house legal team has resigned, confirmed by a Terraform Labs spokesperson today.　　General counsel Marc Goldich, chief corporate counsel Lawrence Florio, and regulatory counsel Noah Axler all left their positions shortly after Terra’s algorithmic stablecoin UST collapsed last week, bringing Terra’s native token LUNA down with it and wiping out $40 billion in value in the process.　　“The past week has been challenging for Terraform Labs, and a small number of team members resigned in recent days,” a company spokesperson said in an email. “The vast majority of team members remain steadfastly committed to carrying out the project’s mission.”　　It is unclear why the attorneys resigned. None immediately responded to requests for comment.　　In the days following the collapse of UST and LUNA, outspoken Terra co-founder Do Kwon has made multiple proposals for Terra’s path forward. The most recent, “Terra Ecosystem Revival Plan 2,” debuted yesterday and involves dispensing of UST permanently, and splitting—aka forking—LUNA into the old, currently worthless coin, “LUNA Classic” (LUNC), and a new version of the coin re-dubbed LUNA. The plan includes an airdrop of 1 billion new LUNA tokens to former

2022-05-18Deep Dive

South Korean lawmaker suggests summoning Do Kwon to the national assembly

Yun Chang-hyeon, a lawmaker in South Korea‘s ruling party, People’s Power, has suggested summoning Terraform Labs‘ founder Do Kwon to a parliamentary hearing. A report unveiled this news today, noting that the legislators plan to summon Kwon over the collapse of the firm’s stablecoin and crypto projects.　　The companys TerraUSD (UST) and Terra (LUNA) projects recently crashed, losing almost $39 billion of their value in under a week. Before this, both coins had a valuation of over $40 billion. As a result of this sudden crash, investors lamented attracting the attention of multiple government regulators, which called for more regulation in the nascent asset class.　　Per Chang-hyeon,　　“There is a part that raises questions about the behavior of exchanges during the crash. Coinone, Korbit, and Gopax stopped trading on May 10, Bithumb on May 11 We stopped trading daily, but Upbit did not stop trading until May 13.”　　Chang-hyeon added that the crash of LUNA and UST increased Upbit‘s trading volume, seeing as the exchange was the last to halt UST and LUNA despite the crash. The lawmaker added that the exchange controls about 80% of South Korea’s crypto trading volume. As a result, Upbit made around 10 billion won ($0.0079 billion) in commissions.　　Emphasizing

2022-05-18Deep Dive

CFTC Chair labels Bitcoin, Ethereum as commodities

Rostin Behnam, the Chair of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), claimed Bitcoin (BTC) and Ethereum (ETH) are commodities. He said this during an interview with CNBCs Squawk Box on Monday.　　Referring to a Senate bill that seeks to give the Securities Exchange Commission (SEC) control over a large chunk of the crypto market, leaving the CFTC with far less control, Behnam said this matter is an age-old issue between the two agencies.　　According to Behnam, the CFTC and the SEC have had a great relationship over the years, and they continue to communicate and work together. He added that both entities have a lot of common registrants. However, Behnam believes it makes sense for the CFTC to regulate commodities and the SEC to regulate securities.　　He further noted that the sphere of digital assets, which contains thousands of tokens, naturally features some commodities and securities. To this end, the CFTC Chair said it makes sense to parse through both asset types to determine which tokens qualify as securities or commodities.　　Behnam acknowledged that sorting through the crypto market to distinguish securities from commodities will be complex. According to him, the novelty of some coins and the technology they leverage would mean checking what

2022-05-18Deep Dive

Indian Regulator SEBI Proposes Banning Public Figures From Endorsing Crypto Products

The Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) has reportedly proposed banning public figures, including celebrities and sportsmen, from advertising and endorsing crypto products. The regulator also proposed that public figures be held liable for any law violations when promoting crypto products.　　SEBIs Crypto Advertising and Endorsement Proposal　　The Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI), the countrys securities and commodity market regulator, has proposed prohibiting public figures, including celebrities and sportsmen, from endorsing crypto products, Businessline reported last week. In addition, the regulator proposed requiring advertisers to disclose possible law violations.　　SEBI recently shared its view on the subject with Indias Parliamentary Standing Committee on Finance when it was questioned about various crypto issues, sources told the publication. The regulator subsequently submitted a detailed written response to the committee.　　The Indian Ministry of Finance also asked SEBI to give its view on the crypto advertising guidelines published in February by the Advertising Standards Council of India (ASCI).　　SEBI reportedly wrote:　　“Given that crypto products are unregulated, prominent public figures including celebrities, sportsmen, etc. or their voice shall not be used for endorsement/advertisement of crypto products.”　　Furthermore, the securities regulator proposed that public figures be held liable for endorsing crypto products, which could violate certain laws, including

2022-05-18Deep Dive

Iran Blocks 9,200 Bank Accounts Over Suspicious Foreign Currency, Crypto Transactions

Iran‘s Ministry of Intelligence has reportedly blocked almost 10,000 bank accounts over suspicious foreign currency and cryptocurrency transactions. The action was carried out in collaboration with the country’s central bank.　　 9,219 Bank Accounts Blocked　　Irans Ministry of Intelligence issued a statement Saturday stating that it has blocked a number of bank accounts due to suspicious foreign currency and cryptocurrency transactions, local media reported. The ministry detailed:　　“A total of 9,219 bank accounts belonging to 545 individuals were blocked.”　　The statement adds that the total transaction value blocked was over 60 trillion Iranian tomans, which is approximately $2 billion based on the daily dollar exchange rate in the Iranian open market. Irans currency recently hit a four-month low against the U.S. dollar.　　However, the ministry did not provide any details on the accounts or how much of the turnover was in digital currency. Please download WikiBit for more blockchain news.　　The Ministry of Intelligence‘s action was carried out by the order of a judge and in collaboration with the country’s central bank. It was part of the Iranian governments recent plan to combat illegal and unauthorized foreign currency and cryptocurrency transactions. In December last year, the ministry announced that it froze bank accounts of more than

2022-05-18Deep Dive

South Korea Launches 'Emergency' Investigation Into Collapse of LUNA and UST

South Koreas top financial regulators have launched an emergency investigation into the collapse of cryptocurrency LUNA and stablecoin UST. The authorities have asked domestic cryptocurrency exchanges to provide information relating to transactions and investors of the two coins.　　South Koreas Emergency Investigation Into LUNA, UST　　South Korea has launched an “emergency” investigation of domestic crypto exchange operators following the collapse of the terrausd stablecoin (UST) and terra (LUNA) cryptocurrency, Yonhap News reported Tuesday, citing unnamed sources.　　Last week, UST lost its peg to the U.S. dollar, sending its price and the price of terra (LUNA) into free fall. At the time of writing, UST is trading at less than $0.09 while LUNA is near worthless.　　South Korean top financial regulators, the Financial Services Commission (FSC) and the Financial Supervisory Service (FSS), have asked local cryptocurrency exchange operators to share information relating to UST and LUNA, sources told the news outlet.　　An official of a local crypto exchange operator was quoted as saying:　　“Last week, financial authorities asked for data on the amount of transactions and investors, and sized up the exchanges relevant measures.”　　“I think they did it to draw up measures to minimize the damage to investors in the future,” the exchange official said. Please download

2022-05-18Deep Dive

Crypto Fear and Greed Index Reaches Lowest Point in 3 Years

A famous fear and greed index by Alternative.me has reached the lowest point since the middle of 2019 as it dropped to the value of 8, which markets have not seen since March 2020.　　Such a strong drop of an indicator may cause additional fears among investors but, in fact, it should not be worrisome as it may act as a bottom indicator. Such a strong dive of the indicator was mostly caused by a spike of volatility on Bitcoin and the 100% drop of Luna altcoin, which had $30 billion in market cap prior to the drop.　　Source: Alternative.me　　Extreme Fear can actually be considered a sign of an upcoming or already occurred capitulation since the indicator tracks both sentiment and market metrics to determine the sentiment of traders and crypto investors.　　The Fear and Greed index is often used to determine oversold/overbought states on the market, with Extreme Fear representing the oversold market and Extreme Greed an overbought market.　　According to Alternative.me, the index currently measures volatility, market momentum, social media, dominance and trends. Volatility and market momentum represented by volume are have the most impact on the indicator.　　Trends, social media and currently paused surveys are mostly affecting the social sentiment of traders

2022-05-18Deep Dive

FTX CEO Thinks Bitcoin Has No Future as a Payment System

Sam Bankman-Fried – Chief Executive Officer of the crypto exchange FTX – argued that bitcoin will not emerge as a global payment network. He labeled it inefficient and harmful to the environment due to its proof-of-work mining model. However, he doesnt believe BTC “has to go” as it could serve as a store of value similar to gold.　　Payment Systems Should Utilize PoS　　In a recent interview for the Financial Times, Sam Bankman-Fried (SBF) criticized bitcoin for being unable to process a large number of transactions at a cheap cost. In his view, BTC or any other cryptocurrency based on the proof-of-work (POW) mining model does not have a future as an effective payment system:　　“The Bitcoin network is not a payment network, and it is not a scaling network.”　　SBF thinks that a functional payment network can be created by blockchain protocols using a proof-of-stake (POS) consensus mechanism. Thus, transactions will be faster and relatively inexpensive, which makes them an appropriate choice for the broad society:　　“Things that youre doing millions of transactions a second with have to be extremely efficient and lightweight and lower energy cost. Proof-of-stake networks are.”　　One such cryptocurrency project working on switching from PoW to PoS mining model is Ethereum.

2022-05-17Deep Dive

Japan’s largest investment bank Nomura to launch crypto arm

Japanese investment bank Nomura will launch a new company focused on cryptocurrency, decentralized finance (DeFi) and non-fungible tokens (NFTs) for institutional clients, according to the Financial Times.　　Nomura plans to have around 100 people working for the subsidiary by the end of next year, the FT reported, citing people with knowledge of the companys roadmap. Current executives will run the company, although there are plans for extensive outside hiring.　　Despite recent turbulence in the crypto market, Nomura last week announced its first bitcoin futures and options trades on the Chicago-based exchange CME, according to the FT. The trades were done via Cumberland, the crypto arm of trading firm DRW.　　It joins companies such as Goldman Sachs and JPMorgan, who have also been developing their crypto-asset offerings of late.　　Fifteen current Nomura staff will be transferred to the as-yet-unnamed crypto company while Nomuras current chief digital officer for its wholesale business, Jez Mohideen, will head the new project.　　For more Blockchain news, please download WikiBit- the Global Blockchain Regulatory Inquiry APP.

2022-05-17Deep Dive

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