Tuesday June 14, 2022
◾ The total market cap of digital currencies fell below $950 billion with bitcoin and ether hitting 18-month lows of $21,049 and $1,096 respectively. (Coinmarketcap)
◾ Reports detail how Celsius experienced a mismatch in maturities between ETH and stETH but the company has remained silent since announcing a user account freeze on Sunday. (Twitter)
◾ Binance temporarily froze the withdrawal of bitcoin yesterday caused by technical failures on its wallet consolidation nodes. The platform returned to full operation within a couple hours. (Twitter)
The Fear & Greed Index for bitcoin and other large cryptocurrencies dropped to 8, hitting a one-year low for the second time over the past 30-days. With pricing in turmoil due to the initial fallout from Terra UST and this week’s maturity mismatch and account freeze at Celcius, the industry is in a state of panic driven by FUD. I am still surprised that many in the crypto market are looking at the latest crypto winter as a cyclical occurrence rather than viewing this in context with the overall macroeconomic climate. Returning to crypto, I believe the market could bottom with the Fed’s upcoming actions, but I do not expect buyers to return to the market en masse until regulations are passed and definitely not until the US reports on the President’s Executive Order. I am hunkering down for a long cold summer.
Government & NGO Actions
◾ Kenya’s Central Bank Governor said his nation may develop its own CBDC saying could help bring down payment and cross-border transaction costs. (Reuters)
◾ El Salvador's Finance Minister said he is not concerned about the decline in bitcoin prices explaining that the country has lost $40 million on it’s bitcoin bet but this is less than 0.5% of the national budget. (Reuters)
◾ Bank of England Governor Andrew Bailey reiterated his negative stance on digital currencies saying, “if you want to invest in these assets, okay, but be prepared to lose all your money.” (Reuters)
◾ New York Mayor Eric Adams says he will ask Governor Kathy Hochul to veto the moratorium on crypto mining at old fossil fuel powered plants. (NYPost)
Public Company Releases
◾ BitNile (NILE) received $4 million from a 12.5% secured note and expects to request an additional $4 million under this facility by the end of the month; the note is secured by bitcoin and bitcoin miners. (Businesswire)
◾ TeraWulf (WULF) has reached an agreement in principle with its existing lenders for an incremental add-on facility of up to $50 million with an initial draw of $15 million at closing and intends to use the proceeds to fund new miner purchases. (Cision)
◾Applied Blockchain (APLD) announced the expiration of its IPO share lock-up allowing 36,441,489 shares of the Company’s common stock to become freely tradable. (Globenewswire)
◾ Chinese crypto rig manufacturer Nano Labs, led by Canaan (CAN) former Chairman, has filed to list on Nasdaq under the ticker NA. (SeekingAlpha)
◾ INX Digital (INXD) has officially released its crypto trading app on the Apple App Store and Google Play app store. (Cision)
Protocols, Applications & Business News
◾ Binance.US is being sued by an investor who has accused the digital currency exchange of falsely marketed Terra USD as a safe, stable asset backed by fiat currency when it was in fact an unregistered security. (Reuters)
◾ Crypto savings and investing platform BlockFi announced the crypto lender would reduce its headcount by “roughly 20%.” (Twitter)
◾ Digital exchange Crypto.com is reducing approximately 260 positions or 5% of its workforce. (Twitter)
◾ Goldman Sachs (GS) completed its first trade of Ethereum non-deliverables forwards providing clients with exposure to the second largest digital asset without having to maintain possession of the tokens. (Bloomberg)
Metaverse Briefings & Activations
◾ Meta (META) plans to roll out a new Quest feature next week that will allow users to hang out with others in their virtual home spaces.
◾ The Arizona State University has filed trademarks for the use of its name and logos on NFTs including their use in classes in a virtual environment. (Cointelegraph)
Market Data
◾ Mastercard’s (MA) Ciphertrace reports that illicit crypto activity declined as a percentage of overall volumes to 0.10 – 0.15% in 2021 however, despite the percentage range appearing small, the dollar value is not. (Ciphertrace)