What happened this week? Well, more crypto businesses driven out of the US, as they lost their dominance in this sector a long time ago, and will go down even further. The UK tries to get the lead in crypto and somehow misses the start. Some problems with Binance and a storm brewing with Tron USDD. What else? Read below:
- Bitcoin: BTC was rising from 38.3% at the start of the year up to 45.2% in terms of market cap dominance, the highest level since April 2021. Bitcoin whitepaper was found in every modern version of Apple's Mac computers leading to some thinking that Steve Jobs has something to do with it. Meanwhile, MicroStrategy bought another 1045 BTC, bringing its total holding to 140K BTC. And another great news, we have a new type of NFT on BTC, using STAMPS protocol (Secure Tradeable Art Maintained Securely). Who's naming those protocols, Tony Stark? Bitcoin finished Q1 2023 with 71.77% gains, the best-performing asset class, followed by tech-heavy Nasdaq with 20.50%, while SP500 only went up 7%.
- Ethereum: The Optimism community is starting a multi-year project to build the Superchain, an interconnected ecosystem of Ethereum-centric rollups, and this is quite big if it can be done. ETH is getting close to $2000, and it may break through it soon, as the Shappella upgrade is getting near.
- Altcoins: PancakeSwap V3 was launched on both BNB and ETH networks, improving efficiency and providing better reward mechanisms for liquidity providers and yield farmers. Gold-backed digital assets market cap surpassed the $1B mark. Spot trading increased by 10%, the third month in a row, counting March, and derivatives went up 10%, we also have the highest market share reached by derivatives on records in March, 72.7% (compared with 69% in February). Binance's spot market share went down as they halted trading incentives, facing some legal issues, dropping from 62% to 58%. The Australian regulators also canceled the Binance derivatives license, as of April 14. TraderJoe was the fastest-growing DEX in the last 180 days, following a model similar to Uniswap v3. Some trouble brewing for Tron, after the removal of USDD from Tron's reserves, made the price of the stablecoin to be consistently traded under $1, and BTC alone is insufficient to maintain the USDD peg. At the current prices, Tron DAO reserve doesn't have enough TRX to back the USDD dollar for dollar. I just sold all my TRX for Hive, just in case. Paxful offered an integrity lesson, while suspending operations, letting all the customers access their funds and move them elsewhere, as they are unsure whether the business will return, with US regulatory challenges to blame for it.
- Blockchain games and NFTs: WAX metrics increased recently in Q1 23, after decreasing for the whole of 2022. Check twice and transfer once, this is what they say, as someone paid 100 ETH for a free NFT instead of $100. On Splinterlands it seems that the SPS mining mechanism will be changed soon, as just holding the lands NFTs will not be enough to be rewarded. We will see what happens next, meanwhile, if you have a lot of lands, it is quite expensive to survey them and make them available, as you need to survey 100 at the time for maximum chances of getting a decent amount in terms of type, rarity, and special ones. Also, all of their discounted DEC-B was sold very fast, next time I'll need to grab some more quickly than others. Until then, you need to survey your lands to continue to get SPS rewards in the game.
- Good news: Bittrex announced it will wind down its US operations due to the challenging regulatory and economic environment. The last day to withdraw is April 29, with trading being stopped on April 14. If this keeps going, no exchange will be left in the US. NYDFS Chief denies crypto crackdown being behind Signature Bank closure, not long after the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank and Silvergate Bank. In the UK, the approach is different, as quite a few crypto businesses struggling to access banking services contacted Prime Minister Rishi Sunak's government to show how applications are being denied, accounts suddenly closed, and a lot of paperwork to deal with it, as this is not in line with the Prime Minister ambition to foster fintech innovation and transform the UK into a global cryptocurrency hub. At least they try, unlike the US. Three Canadian crypto exchanges, WonderFi, CoinSquare, and Coinsmart, are planning to merge, creating one of the largest crypto trading platforms. Swiss government-owned PostFinance revealed plans to enable its customers to access crypto via regulated digital asset services provider Sygnum Bank. One of the largest Latin American investment banks, BTG Pactual, launches a Polygon-powered stablecoin, BTG-Dol. Singapore published guidelines for crypto-banking, covering stablecoins, NFTs, and transferable gaming credits too.
- Bad news: Elon Musk asked a judge to dismiss a $258B lawsuit accusing him of messing with Dogecoin, as his lawyers called the lawsuit a fanciful work of fiction, over some silly tweets. He cannot stay away from this, right? What happens next? Twitter changes its logo from a bird to Dogecoin's Shiba Inu, as the judges dismiss that lawsuit. Of course, the Dogecoin price went up after this gimmick. Celsius is talking about some tokenized common equity to be distributed to Earn Creditors. CashApp creator Bob Lee died after he has been stabbed Tuesday in San Francisco. FTX Arena is no more, as Kaseya took over the contract, and the Miami Heat stadium will be named now Kaseya Center.
- Joke of the week: Arbitrum Foundation tried to allocate 750M ARB, worth $1B, for special grants, reimbursement, and operational costs, but the voters rejected the proposal, ARB token holders accusing the foundation of being undemocratic, untransparent, and possibly committing fraud. Then they pledged to split the proposal into smaller parts and provide more context and accountability for its budget and actions.
All the best,
George
Why not...
...have fun and win rewards on my favorite blockchain games (Splinterlands - Hearthstone-like card game) (Mobox - GamiFI NFT platform) and (X-Portal - Elrond all in one app, free NFTs, and more).
...get crypto while writing on Publish0x blog, using Presearch search engine to maximize your income with PRE tokens. Use Torum instead of Twitter . I am also writing for crypto on Read.cash and Hive.