This Week in Crypto News: SEC is Saber Rattling, Binance is Shuffling, and Crypto Keanu
TL;DR This week, the crypto news was dominated by the SEC crackdown on stablecoin projects and the ongoing questions over Binance’s finances. Astar (ASTR) led the charge in terms of price appreciation, with BinaryX (BNX) and Mina (MINA) not far behind. Meanwhile, MATIC holders saw their gas fees skyrocket as an unknown Chinese MLM project became a major holder of the coin.
Crypto news: We bring you a round up of what’s been happening in crypto this week. And it’s more of the same. The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) cracks down (again), questions are raised over Binance’s finances (again), and MATIC falls for a Ponzi.
Like a tightly-coiled spring, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) exploded last week, targeting the stablecoin sector. And just when we thought the onslaught was over, the agency has now set its sights on Terraform Labs and its CEO Do Kwon.
On Thursday, the SEC charged the firm and its boss with “orchestrating a multi-billion dollar crypto asset securities fraud.” The agency claims Terraform and Kwon “raised billions of dollars from investors by offering and selling an interconnected suite of crypto asset securities, many in unregistered transactions.”
Crypto – Socially Speaking
Data courtesy of Lunarcrush.com
Binance: Everyday I’m Shuffling
It wouldn’t be This Week in Crypto News without a Binance story. This week, the Changpeng Zhao-led exchange was accused of transferring $400 million from its Binance.US account to one believed to be tied to CZ himself – all without the knowledge of the then CEO of Binance.US.
https://t.co/bs8b4fUU90's executives, including then CEO Catherine Coley, were concerned by the outflows because the transfers were taking place without their knowledge, according to messages we reviewed.
"Where are those funds coming from?" Coley asked a Binance executive — Angus Berwick (@AABerwick) February 16, 2023
The fear is that shuffling funds between entities and accounts echoes what happened with FTX. The now-bankrupt exchange was involved in shifting and interchanging funds across accounts managed by a single entity. Binance refused to comment on the report
Top of the crypto charts this week was Astar (ASTR), which saw its price head to the stars with a 46% rise. Mina (MINA) and BinaryX (BNX) weren’t far behind – both up 44%.
Bringing up the rear, the biggest struggler was Frax Share (FXS), which fell by 14%.
Top 10 cryptocurrencies by market cap. Courtesy of BeInCrypto
Life’s a Gas
On Monday, we reported how a Chinese multi-level marketing (MLM) project has become the fifth-largest holder of MATIC. According to PeckShield data, the holder has accumulated 122 million in MATIC, surpassing even Binance’s hot wallet. Little is known about the “Avatar“project. Apparently offers a referral staking protocol with suspiciously high rewards.
MATIC gas prices cross 700 gwei.
To the annoyance of MATIC holders, the address has consumed over 100,000 MATIC in gas fees. The number of transactions hit 117,000 and led to fees crossing the 700 gwei threshold.
This Week in NFT Sales
The fevered excitement surrounding Blur.io shows no sign of abating. Global non-fungible token (NFT) sales hit over $300 million in the past seven days, with over 30% of volume occurring on Thursday. The Blur token airdrop on Tuesday probably led to the trading spike.
Courtesy of NonFungible.com
Crypto Keanu
The latest convert to the crypto causes comes in the shape of actor Keanu Reeves. The John Wick star said the principals behind cryptocurrencies are “amazing tools for exchanges and distribution of resources.” Which is rather appropriate for someone who starred in one of the first films to explore a persistent online world, The Matrix.
Reeves argued that a corporate agenda drives replacing creatives with computers. “We’re listening to music already that’s made by AI in the style of Nirvana, there’s NFT digital art… But there’s a corporatocracy behind it that’s looking to control those things,” he observed.
Digging Deep for Turkish Earthquake Victims
Earlier this month a devastating earthquake struck Turkey and Syria leaving over 40,000 dead and many more injured or displaced. It was heartening to see the community set aside its differences and come together to support those in need.
Ripple pledged as much as $1 million in its native coin XRP. The company initially donated $250,000 in XRP and then boosted it by a promise to match all donations to the Crypto for Charity fund 2:1, with a limit capped at $750,000.
Vitalik Buterin digs deep for charity.
And Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin has sent over $228,000 in ETH to two Turkish earthquake relief organizations. Charities have raised over $75 million so far. If you want to help, you can find the details at the Ahbap website.
Top Doge
Senior analyst Valdrin Tahiri gives his Dogecoin (DOGE) price analysis, which shows a bullish weekly time frame and a major bullish divergence between the RSI and the price.