Strengthens
- Of the cryptocurrencies tracked by CoinMarketCap, the best performer for the week was Huobi Token, which rose 81%.
- Coinbase Global partnered with Alphabet Inc.’s Google over cloud services, the latest corporate pact following earlier deals with BlackRock and the Meta platforms. Google cloud will enable some customers, starting with those in the web3 industry, to pay with cryptocurrencies through Coinbase. Google will also use Coinbase Prime for institutional crypto services, writes Bloomberg.
- Tron founder Justin Sun said he owns “tens of millions” of Huobi tokens and intends to try to increase the latter now that he is an advisor to the affiliated crypto exchange. “I would consider myself one of the largest holders,” of Huobi Tokens in the world, Sun said in a Bloomberg television interview with Emily Chang.
Weaknesses
- Of the cryptocurrencies tracked by CoinMarketCap, Klaytn was the worst performer for the week, down 19.50%.
- The latest C-suite departure in the crypto sector comes from NFT marketplace OpenSea, where Brian Roberts has left his CFO role after less than a year on the job. Roberts, who joined the NFT platform in December after seven years at ride-sharing company Lyft, said in a LinkedIn post that he will now serve as an advisor to OpenSea, according to an article published by Bloomberg.
- An attacker siphoned off around $100 million from decentralized finance provider Mango by manipulating the price of the token in an exploit that wiped out depositors on the crypto platform. The robbery began with two accounts funded with the stablecoin USD coin. The account took large positions in Mango perpetual futures, causing the price of the Mango token to increase. The price jump created an unrealized profit from futures. The attacker used it to borrow and withdraw approximately $100 million net from the protocol in a variety of tokens that left depositors with nothing, according to Mango.
Possibilities
- The head of New York’s financial regulator wants to use the state’s role as a financial services hub to help set the regulatory agenda nationwide, with a particular focus on bringing order to the cryptocurrency industry. Superintendent Adrienne Harris said she intends to achieve her goals in part by offering clearer guidance to banks and other financial institutions and by strengthening the resources the agency needs to do its job, writes Bloomberg.
- Uniswap Labs has secured more funding even as the crypto market struggles and investors begin to lose faith in decentralized finance. The exchange said it secured $165 million through a Series B funding round, Bloomberg reports, valuing the company at $1.66 billion. Uniswap said this is one of the largest funding rounds for a crypto firm since the market downturn this year.
- Binance has launched a $500 million fund to provide loans to Bitcoin miners struggling to cope with difficult crypto market conditions. Binance pool, the company’s mining service, will provide loans to both private and listed miners, writes Bloomberg.
Threats
- The Bollinger band width for Bitcoin has shrunk to its narrowest since 2020. The band width is the gap between the upper and lower bands of a Bollinger study, a popular way of measuring volatility. Bandwidth has been similarly narrow five other times in the past two years, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. On four of these occasions, Bitcoin subsequently lost nearly 16% over 20 days.
- The US SEC is investigating Yuga Labs, the creator of the Bored Ape Yacht Club NFT collection, whether the sale of its digital assets violates federal law, according to a report from Bloomberg. The question is whether any of Yuga’s NFTs are closer to equities and therefore should follow the same disclosure rules. The central legal question at the center of the probe, according to Bloomberg, is whether NFTs are securities, writes CoinDesk.
- The US Treasury Department is facing another lawsuit over its decision in August to sanction Tornado Cash, a crypto-mingling service that hides the sources of coin transactions. The lawsuit, which was filed on Wednesday, claims that the Treasury Department’s sanctions exceeded its authority and penalized American investors in cryptocurrency, writes Bloomberg.
