Bitcoin crash and liquidity impact
Bitcoin (COIN:BTCUSD) opened near two-month lows at $26.016 after extreme sell-offs on Aug. The sharp selloffs appear to be an overreaction to SpaceX’s writedown of $373 million worth of BTC. Speculation also points out that a major player may have been liquidated at Deribit. Meanwhile, spot sales remain 50% below their 2023 peak. With Bitcoin and Ether (COIN:ETHUSD) falling to two-month lows, 176,752 traders have been affected. CoinGlass recorded 90% of these liquidations within 12 hours. Two Binance traders suffered the biggest losses, one losing $55.9 million and the other nearly $10 million. The overall market outlook and future implications remain uncertain.
XRP also suffered significant losses
Ripple’s XRP (COIN:XRPUSD) is down more than 20% for the week, losing around $5 billion in market capitalization. This drop reversed almost all of the gains following a victory for Ripple against the US SEC.
Crash in the crypto market affects even BNB Smart Chain hackers
After an exploit on the BNB Smart Chain resulted in the theft of $600 million worth of BNB tokens (COIN:BNBUSD), and the crypto market pulled back liquidating many, that includes hackers as well. On August 18th, over $1 billion worth of positions were liquidated. As BNB dropped, hackers saw three of their investments liquidated due to the price decline.
Toncoin bucked rising in the week
Currently priced at $1.32, Toncoin (COIN:TONUSD) has shown resilience after recent sector lows. The cryptocurrency is up more than 4% for the week, indicating a technical recovery on ‘The Open Network’.
Whale sells $41M worth of ETH before market crash
Before the crypto market plunge on Aug. 18, a whale sold 22,341 ETH, totaling $41 million, avoiding a potential loss of $5 million. According to blockchain analytics platform Lookonchai, even with a loss of $1.7 million, the trader avoided further declines.
Sharp decline in popularity of Bitcoin Ordinals
The Bitcoin Ordinals protocol, known for producing BRC-20s and NFTs tokens, faced a drastic drop in trading volume. Since peaking in May 2023 at $452 million, there has been a 97% retracement to just $3 million in August. According to DappRadar, the share of unique active wallets dropped from 79,261 to 6,708, calling into question the future of NFTs on the Bitcoin blockchain.
Shibarium resumes block production after pause due to high traffic
Shiba Inu’s Shibarium network, a layer 2 blockchain, has restarted its block production after an outage due to excessive traffic during its launch. The pause served to protect users’ funds. After securing $2 million in insurance for potential recovery challenges, production resumed, although the SHIB coin (COIN:SHIBUSD) has seen a recent price drop.
Mastercard launches program to boost CBDCs with major blockchain partners
Mastercard (NYSE:MA) announced the CBDC Partner Program, collaborating with Ripple, Consensys and other blockchain leaders. The program aims to promote the development of central bank digital currencies (CBDC) by leveraging the expertise of each partner. Despite the still timid adoption of CBDC, Mastercard seeks with this initiative to solve challenges and drive innovation in the field of digital currencies.
Decision pending between Grayscale and SEC
Contrary to speculation, there will be no decision on August 18 on Grayscale’s lawsuit against the SEC regarding the denial of a spot Bitcoin ETF. The information was confirmed by a tweet from James Seyffart, Bloomberg analyst.
Decision on bankrupt Celsius assets looms
Now bankrupt cryptocurrency lender Celsius is conducting a vote to sell its assets to Fahrenheit Group. If approved between Aug. 24 and Sept. 22, creditors could gain up to $2 billion. Fahrenheit acquired Celsius’s assets in May, and payment to creditors will be in Bitcoin (COIN:BTCUSD), Ether (COIN:ETHUSD) and shares. The company will continue litigation against former CEO Alex Machinsky.
Bitget freezes influencer Evan Luthra’s account after token sale
Crypto influencer Evan Luthra has accused Bitget exchange of freezing his account and withholding $200,000 after selling 1.3 million REELT tokens (COIN:REELTUST). Bitget alleges market manipulation, referring to the rapid sale of REELT after its listing. Luthra, a consultant for Reel Star, argues that he acted with the knowledge of the company’s co-founder and is now demanding $16 million in damages. The crypto community is divided over the situation, while Bitget reinforces its commitment to protecting users.
Exactly Protocol suffers $12M loss in bridge hack
Optimism-based decentralized crypto lender Exactly Protocol took a loss of $12 million in ETH after a bridge exploit. The attack made the total value blocked in the protocol drop from US$ 36 million to US$ 26 million, and its governance token (EXA) plummeted 15%. Protocol has now acknowledged the incident and has temporarily paused its operations.
Australian crypto lender Helio Lending faces fine over false license claims
Australian cryptocurrency-secured lending firm Helio Lending has been fined $9,600 after falsely claiming to have a credit license. The fine, issued by the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC), resulted from a misstatement made in 2019. If Helio breaches bail, he will face conviction. The decision follows increasing ASIC oversight of the cryptocurrency sector, including actions against other entities such as eToro and Finder.com.
Taiwan proposes new business category to foster crypto self-regulation
Taiwan suggested a new category for cryptocurrency companies in the regulations, making it possible to form industry associations. The Ministry of Economic Affairs is seeking public feedback and is expected to finalize the amendment in October. The aim is to promote self-regulation guidelines in the sector, which currently remains largely unregulated in the country.
SEC seeks South Korea’s assistance in case against Terraform Labs
The US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has obtained permission to question Daniel Shin, co-founder of Terraform Labs and the Seoul-based Chai Corporation. The SEC is seeking information about the relationship between the companies and the role of co-founder Do Kwon. As the SEC sues Terraform over fraud allegations, Kwon faces charges and imprisonment in Montenegro.
OpenSea removes royalty enforcement tool
The OpenSea NFT platform will eliminate the “Operator Filter”, which allowed creators to block markets that did not charge royalties. Although launched in November 2022 to protect creators’ rights, the tool has not lived up to expectations. According to Devin Finzer, CEO of OpenSea, markets found ways around the filter and creators felt it limited their control. The change takes effect on August 31. The decision was seen as detrimental to artists seeking passive income.