Bitcoin Price: US$ 20,573.89 (0.00 %)
Ethereum Price: US$ 1,128.25 (-0.02 %)
Iranian government to cut power supply for the country’s legal crypto mining rigs
- According to local news outlet Arz Digital, the day prior, Rajabi Mashhadi, a spokesperson for Iran’s Ministry of Energy, said that the entity would be cutting the power supply to all of the country’s licensed crypto mining firms by the beginning of July.
- Citing an anticipated electricity deficit from the peak-summer season, Mashhadi stated, “There are currently 118 authorized [digital currency] extraction centers in the country, which must cut off their electricity supply from the national grid from the beginning of July.”
- “Last week, the country’s electricity consumption recorded an all-time high of 62,500 megawatts (MW) during peak consumption, which is a significant figure. According to forecasts, this week’s consumption requirement will exceed 63,000 MW, which means we must limit electricity supply.”
- The move comes after the country’s Ministry of Energy reported a disappointing gain of 1.2 gigawatts (GW) to its power generation capacity in 2021. This was well below the projected gain of 3.5 GW, leading to a power use deficit.
More ‘forced selling’ ahead? Purpose Bitcoin ETF holdings plunge by 51% in biggest outflow ever
- Canada’s Purpose Bitcoin ETF (BTCC) witnessed its Bitcoin (BTC) holdings slashed by half in just one day, suggesting an alarmingly waning buying sentiment among the crypto’s most-experienced investors.
- The fund’s holdings dropped from 47,818 BTC to 23,307 BTC between June 16 and 17, its lowest level since October 2021. The 51% drop in BTC holding is also the biggest daily outflow ever.
- Interestingly, another Canadian crypto fund, dubbed 3iQ CoinShares Bitcoin ETF, witnessed similar outflows, dropping from 23,917 BTC on June 1 to 12,668 BTC on June 17, suggesting the Purpose’s massive BTC withdrawal was not an isolated event.
- The outflows came at the cusp of Bitcoin’s brief break below $20,000, a psychological support level that served as the top during the 2017 bull run. Notably, BTC’s price fell to circa $17,570 on June 20, only to reclaim $21,000 two days later.
Solend invalidates Solana whale wallet takeover plan with second governance vote
- Solana-based decentralized finance (DeFi) lending protocol Solend has created another governance vote to invalidate the recently-approved proposal that gave Solend Labs “emergency powers” to access a whale’s wallet to avoid liquidation.
- On Sunday, the crypto lending platform launched a governance vote titled “SLND1 : Mitigate Risk From Whale.” It allowed Solend to reduce the risk the whale’s liquidation poses to the market by letting the lending platform access the whale’s wallet and letting the liquidations happen over-the-counter.
- According to Solend, if SOL drops in price and the whale gets liquidated, the lending platform may “end up with bad debt” and strain the Solana network. The proposal was approved, triggering criticism from members of the community.
- After the community condemned the move, calling it the opposite of what DeFi should be and outright illegal, the Solend team initiated a second governance proposal vote to invalidate the previously-approved proposal. The proposal ended with 1,480,264 votes in favor of disregarding the SLND1 proposal.
- The new proposal invalidates the previous vote and will push Solend to find another solution that does not involve forcibly taking over an account. Additionally, it also increases the governance voting time to one day.
SBF and Alameda step in to prevent crypto collapse contagion
- Sam Bankman-Fried’s (SBF) Alameda Research is “stepping in” to prevent further contagion across the crypto sector during the current bear market.
- Numerous crypto companies are facing liquidity issues (of varying severity) as a result of the strong market downturn throughout 2022. Major firms such as Celsius and Three Arrows Capital (3AC) are both reportedly on the brink of insolvency and could potentially bring others down with them if they were to collapse.
- During an interview with NPR on Sunday, SBF stated that given the stature of his companies, Alameda and FTX, he believes they “have a responsibility to seriously consider stepping in, even if it is at a loss to ourselves, to stem contagion:”
- “Even if we weren’t the ones who caused it, or weren’t involved in it. I think that’s what’s healthy for the ecosystem, and I want to do what can help it grow and thrive.”
- Most recently, however, crypto brokerage Voyager Digital announced on Saturday that Alameda had agreed to give the company a 200 million USD Coin (USDC) loan and a “revolving line of credit” of 15,000 Bitcoin (BTC) worth $298.9 million at current prices.
- Voyager Digital noted that its credit facilities offered by Alameda will each expire on December 31, 2024, and have an annual interest rate of 5% payable on maturity. The firm stated it will only use the credit lines “if needed to safeguard customer assets” amid severe market volatility.
- “The proceeds of the credit facility are intended to be used to safeguard customer assets in light of current market volatility and only if such use is needed,” the firm stated.
South Korean prosecutors ban Terraform Labs employees from exiting the country: Report
- Terraform Labs employees are reportedly unable to leave South Korea due to the country’s prosecutors imposing a departure ban on key developers of the project.
- On Monday, Korean media outlet JTBC reported that an investigation team from the Seoul Southern District Prosecutor’s Office imposed a travel ban on key team members of Terraform Labs. The ban was put into place to eliminate the possibility of key officials within the company fleeing abroad to avoid further investigation.
- The report also highlighted that Terraform Labs CEO Do Kwon, who is a key figure in the investigation, is currently residing in Singapore, which is outside of the country. Because of this, the prosecution may take measures such as invalidating Kwon’s passport before launching a more comprehensive investigation into him.
- In a tweet, Terra developer Daniel Hong shared that even former Terraform Labs employees have received an exit ban from the government. According to Hong, none of the employees were notified to avoid any possibility of the destruction of evidence as the investigation continues.
- Hong also expressed disappointment with the ban, saying it shows that employees are being treated as criminals, which he described as “unacceptable.” The developer noted that employees who might have been willing to cooperate may have changed their minds because of the ban.
Filecoin Network v16 Upgrade (Skyr)
- The Filecoin v16 Skyr upgrade seeks to bring the Filecoin non-programmable WASM-based Filecoin Virtual Machine (FVM). Post-upgrade, Filecoin mainnet will automatically switch from the current built-in VMs to the WASM-based reference FVM. A new gas model will also be activated that accounts for WASM execution costs. Only built-in actors will be supported after the Skyr upgrade.
- The v16 Skyr upgrade will be activated on the Filecoin network at epoch 1960320, which is expected to arrive on Jul. 6, 2022, around 14:00 UTC. Core developers do not expect network disruptions during this upgrade, but they are proactively scheduling a longer than usual maintenance window and asking the community to monitor the network post-upgrade.
- Node operators are being asked to monitor this Github thread for updates and implementation announcements.
