Bitcoin Price: US$ 25,934.25 (+0.11%)
Ethereum Price: US$ 1,740.12 (-0.14%)
Bitcoin experienced fluctuations, dropping below $26,000 after the release of the May Consumer Price Index (CPI), which indicated a lower-than-projected inflation rate of 4%. Despite remaining below the $26,000 mark, investors showed resilience, setting aside concerns over SEC lawsuits against crypto exchanges Binance and Coinbase. The focus turned to the latest inflation reading and the Federal Reserve’s interest rate decision. Speculation suggests that the Fed may halt its previous hawkish stance, prompted by last year’s 8.6% CPI surge, which led to an increase in the Federal Funds rate. Amidst potential economic wobbles, Tim Frost, CEO of Yield App, believes crypto assets, including altcoins, may benefit. The recent SEC lawsuits provided market certainty, potentially paving the way for fresh investments in cryptocurrencies. Meanwhile, bitcoin, ether, and stablecoins now comprise 80.5% of the total cryptocurrency market capitalisation, as investors retreated from smaller tokens following recent U.S. regulatory actions. The SEC’s classification of several tokens as securities would impose registration requirements on token issuers and exchanges, impacting trading platforms and market makers. Additionally, blockchain analytics firm Glassnode observed an increased transfer of BTC from miners to centralised exchanges since May 31, amounting to 6671.99 BTC ($174 million) within a two-week period. While the movement could be seen as bearish, the market impact remains limited given the transfers account for only 1.3% of bitcoin’s 24-hour trading volume. The uptick in miner transfers is often interpreted as a sign of confidence in bitcoin’s price prospects, similar to a central bank accumulating reserves during favorable market conditions.
The U.S. Consumer Price Index (CPI) showed a slower-than-expected increase of 0.1% in May compared to April’s 0.4%, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Economist forecasts had anticipated a rise of 0.2%. On a year-over-year basis, the CPI also decelerated to 4.0% in May from April’s 4.9%, slightly below the projected 4.1%. The core CPI, which excludes volatile items like food and energy costs, aligned with expectations, rising 0.4% in May. Year-over-year, the core CPI decreased to 5.3% in May, down from April’s 5.5% and in line with the anticipated 5.3%. In response to recent legal actions by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), eToro, a social investing platform, announced the delisting of several crypto tokens, including Algorand (ALGO), Decentraland (MANA), Dash (DASH), and Polygon (MATIC), for its U.S. customers starting from July 12. The move allows customers to continue holding and selling existing positions but restricts new positions in these tokens. Furthermore, North Korean hackers, suspected to be the Lazarus Group, reportedly stole over $100 million in cryptocurrencies in an attack on Atomic Wallet, a decentralised self-custodial platform, on June 3. The Lazarus Group is notorious for its extensive hacking operations, which have yielded more than $2 billion in stolen funds.
Meta, the tech giant behind platforms like Facebook and Instagram, has introduced MusicGen, a music-generating tool powered by AI. Trained on a dataset consisting of 20,000 hours of music, including 10,000 hours of licensed songs and 390,000 instrumental tracks, MusicGen can transform text prompts into audio recordings. Meta has acknowledged that the dataset may lack diversity, with a larger proportion of Western-style music. Users can provide specific prompts or references to eras or songs to steer the music generation process. Longer tracks can also be created using MusicGen as a reference point. Uniswap, the leading decentralised exchange, has unveiled Uniswap v4, introducing customisable features and releasing the draft core code for community building. The upgrade brings the concept of “hooks,” enabling developers to expand liquidity pools by utilising locked tokens that can be unlocked by other users for a fee. The introduction of hooks allows for various innovations and customisability, including time-weighted average market makers and dynamic fees based on volatility. Additionally, Uniswap v4 aims to significantly reduce gas costs associated with pool creation. Meanwhile, Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao (CZ) has refuted rumors on social media claiming that Binance had been selling Bitcoin (BTC) and Binance Coin (BNB). CZ clarified that Binance has not sold BTC or BNB, emphasising the difficulty of determining individual traders’ actions based solely on a price chart. The statement comes amidst a legal dispute between Binance and the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) regarding alleged malfeasance and legal violations at Binance’s U.S. unit.
Source:
https://coindesk.com
https://decrypt.co
https://theblock.co
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