Bitcoin Price: US$ 25,598.49 (+1.87%)
Ethereum Price: US$ 1,666.96 (+0.97%)
Celsius, the defunct crypto lender, is seeking to convert customers’ altcoins to Bitcoin and Ether as part of its reorganisation plan. Following its acquisition by the Fahrenheit crypto consortium, Celsius has revised its bankruptcy filing and awaits approval from a New York court. The plan proposes the conversion of altcoins starting from July 1, excluding certain accounts. However, opposition from borrowers is anticipated, as Celsius demands loan repayment without fulfilling contractual obligations. Celsius has also sought permission to appoint a foreign representative in the UK to safeguard its assets. In other news, Binance has launched subscription-based cloud mining services for Bitcoin, allowing users to purchase hashrates. The service, available globally except in the US, provides an opportunity for users to mine Bitcoin without owning mining equipment. Meanwhile, Curve’s governance token, CRV, experienced a significant drop in price after reports emerged of its founder’s risky loans. The token faces a potential liquidation threat, and measures are being proposed to freeze the loans and prevent further borrowing to mitigate the situation. The negative bets on CRV have increased, leading to the possibility of a short squeeze, where short players rush to protect their positions as the asset’s price moves in the opposite direction.
The outcome of Ripple’s lawsuit with the SEC could have significant implications for the cryptocurrency industry. If Ripple emerges victorious, it could pave the way for increased acceptance and investment in digital assets, providing a boost to the market. However, a defeat could hinder mainstream adoption and encourage the SEC to pursue similar cases, leading to market volatility and potentially driving talent away from the United States. This pivotal decision aligns with a period of heightened scrutiny by the SEC under Chairman Gary Gensler’s leadership. In other news, Ripple’s expansion into Latin America continues as it signs a deal with Colombia’s central bank to explore central bank digital currency (CBDC) technology. This partnership aims to pilot use cases that enhance Colombia’s high-value payment system using Ripple’s CBDC platform. Additionally, the launch of Uniswap’s fourth version has sparked controversy within the open-source Ethereum community due to the license used. The Business Source License (BSL) chosen by Uniswap restricts commercial and production use for up to four years, which has drawn criticism from some developers who believe it goes against the principles of open-source software. The licensing debate highlights the tension between incentivising innovation and protecting the protocol’s rights within the crypto space.
AMD has introduced its new MI300X AI Accelerator chip, directly challenging NVIDIA’s H100 and aiming to disrupt its dominance in the AI accelerator market. The MI300X is designed specifically for AI tasks and features up to 192GB of memory, making it well-suited for executing large models like LLMs. Its high memory configuration allows for the deployment of expansive models, and the chip’s architecture is optimised for generative AI workloads. With its larger memory capacity, AMD claims that users will need fewer GPUs to accomplish the same tasks in less time. In other news, Xai, a “layer-3” scaling network built on top of Arbitrum’s existing layer-2 network, is being developed to cater specifically to game creators in the Web3 space. Xai introduces parallel processing and advancements to enhance scalability, efficiency, and cost reduction for crypto-infused video games. Additionally, Coinbase has partnered with Block’s self-custody bitcoin wallet app Bitkey, enabling customers to purchase bitcoin while maintaining control of their private keys. Bitkey users will be able to buy, sell, and transfer bitcoin via Coinbase Pay on their mobile app or hardware wallet, facilitating seamless transitions between centralised exchanges and secure self-custody wallets.
Investment management firm BlackRock is reportedly nearing the filing of an application for a bitcoin exchange-traded fund (ETF), with plans to utilise Coinbase Custody and spot market data from Coinbase. The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has historically rejected bitcoin ETF applications, so the reception of BlackRock’s request remains uncertain. Meanwhile, blockchain analytics firm Chainalysis has highlighted in a report that ransomware hackers are increasingly using mining pools for money laundering purposes, surpassing the use of peer-to-peer exchanges. Although the revenue from crypto funds stolen in ransomware attacks has declined, Chainalysis suggests that mining pools and hashing services should implement stricter wallet screening measures to identify illicit funds and reject transactions from suspicious addresses.
Source:
https://cointelegraph.com
https://decrypt.co
https://theblock.co
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