Bitcoin Price: US$ 26,339.34 (-3.27%)
Ethereum Price: US$ 1,832.13 (-2.79%)
Major cryptocurrencies including BNB, ADA, MATIC, and SOL experienced a significant drop in value following lawsuits filed by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) against Binance and Coinbase, accusing them of offering unregistered securities. Seeking a safer investment, traders turned to Bitcoin (BTC), which remained relatively stable. BNB, the native token of Binance Smart Chain, hit a six-month low at $252. BTC traded between $25,000 and $27,000. Ether (ETH) saw a 1.3% decrease, aligning with the broader digital asset market. Meanwhile, funding rates for BTC and ETH remained positive, indicating bullish sentiment. Despite the lawsuits, market participants seemed unaffected, with BTC and ETH prices maintaining their levels. The SEC’s actions may result in restrictions on the use of Binance by U.S. citizens, potentially impacting the availability of services and leading to fines and other consequences. However, some believe that the continuous printing of money by the U.S. Federal Reserve will drive investors toward scarce assets, potentially fueling a crypto bull run regardless of the involvement of Coinbase and Binance.
El Salvador’s Bitcoin mining project, Volcano Energy, has secured an initial investment of $250 million as part of a $1 billion initiative to establish a Bitcoin mining farm powered by renewable energy. The funding will be used to develop a 241 MW power generation park in El Salvador, utilising solar and wind energy sources. Tether, a stablecoin issuer, is among the investors in the project, signaling its commitment to renewable energy and mining infrastructure. Meanwhile, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has filed lawsuits against major crypto platforms Binance and Coinbase, alleging deceptive practices and unlicensed securities exchange operations, respectively. The regulatory scrutiny on centralised exchanges has resulted in increased trading volumes on decentralised exchanges (DEX), with Uniswap experiencing a 41% surge in transactions, and PancakeSwap, despite being part of the Binance ecosystem, also recording significant gains. The surge in DEX volumes raises questions about the impact of regulatory actions on the decentralised finance (DeFi) space.
The SEC’s recent lawsuits against crypto exchanges have raised questions about the agency’s distinction between Proof-of-Work (PoW) and Proof-of-Stake (PoS) tokens. PoW coins, which lack a central issuer, have largely avoided SEC scrutiny due to their open nature. On the other hand, PoS coins, which require validators to lock up tokens for block validation, have been targeted as potential securities. The SEC has identified several PoS coins, including Solana, Cardano, Polygon, Filecoin, and Sandbox, as securities in their lawsuits. Meanwhile, the COO of Sandbox expressed disagreement with the SEC’s labeling of the SAND token as a security. In another development, Soros Fund Management CEO Dawn Fitzpatrick expressed optimism about the future of crypto despite recent challenges, such as regulatory actions against Binance and Coinbase. Fitzpatrick believes that traditional financial firms have an opportunity to take the lead in the crypto market as investor confidence in some platforms wanes. She highlighted the benefits of established institutions properly segregating client assets, which could benefit average consumers and traders. However, Fitzpatrick acknowledged the irony of traditional firms leading in a market known for disruption and decentralisation but attributed it to the mismanagement of crypto development thus far. In a separate development, a bug in Arbitrum’s sequencer code briefly interrupted the network’s ability to batch transactions to the Ethereum blockchain. The bug prevented the sequencer from successfully posting batches onto Ethereum, causing a temporary outage where transactions were not confirmed on the main chain.
Source:
https://coindesk.com
https://cointelegraph.com
https://decrypt.co
https://theblock.co
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