Bitcoin has shaken off last week’s market jitters, briefly trading above $72,000 on Monday. Meanwhile, stablecoins were in the spotlight, with VanEck and Ripple Labs getting involved in new offerings, and a jury in New York finding Terraform Labs and its founder, Do Kwon, liable for civil fraud charges.
Several major cryptocurrencies, including Ethereum, Bitcoin, and Dogecoin, experienced significant price increases at the start of the week, driven by a confluence of positive catalysts. These include the potential for short squeezes, favorable technical trading patterns, and geopolitical tailwinds from leading Chinese money management firms.
Amidst a massive $400 million crypto bloodbath, XRP’s trading volume skyrocketed by an astonishing 80%, surpassing $4 billion, as investors scrambled to liquidate long positions, resulting in a surge of market activity.
Galaxy Digital, Mike Novogratz’s crypto conglomerate, is reportedly in the early stages of raising a $100 million venture fund targeting early-stage crypto startups. This move comes as venture capital firms are rushing back into the crypto space, with the recent Bitcoin rally and the approval of spot Bitcoin ETFs reviving investor interest in the market.
Bitcoin’s price plunged below $67,000, leading to over $426 million in liquidations across the crypto market. The broader market experienced losses in tandem with Bitcoin’s dip.
Vitalik Buterin proposes ‘degen communism,’ a concept that combines the adventurous spirit of ‘degen’ culture with a structured approach to ensure market volatility doesn’t disproportionately harm smaller users. He suggests prioritizing smaller stakeholders during hacks or project collapses before compensating larger investors, promoting a more equitable system.
Three leading blockchain-based artificial intelligence projects, namely Fetch.ai, SingularityNET, and Ocean Protocol, have seen significant price surges following reports of discussions around merging their respective crypto tokens to develop a decentralized AI platform.
A group of Republican lawmakers has formally requested the SEC Chair Gary Gensler to provide clear guidance on the regulatory stance regarding the custody of Ethereum (ETH) by Special Purpose Broker-Dealers (SPBD).
Circle has partnered with Solana to introduce its cross-chain transfer protocol (CCTP) to the Solana blockchain ecosystem. This integration will enable secure and native swapping of USDC tokens between Solana and other blockchain networks like Ethereum, Avalanche, and Cosmos.
The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has reportedly asked a federal judge to impose a staggering $2 billion in fines and penalties against Ripple Labs, a move that has been described as an attempt to “punish and intimidate” the blockchain firm and the wider crypto industry.
