Big Bang Coin

2023-02-02 18:16:14 ​Community mocks Charlie Munger for his obsession with China’s Bitcoin ban

The online community has expressed bewilderment over how China’s crypto ban aligns with the United States’ proclaimed principles of freedom.

The cryptocurrency community has ridiculed well-known Bitcoin BTC tickers down $23,608 critic Charlie Munger, vice chairman of Berkshire Hathaway, for calling the United States to follow in the footsteps of China and ban crypto.

In an op-ed article in The Wall Street Journal, the 99-year-old investment veteran has once again slammed crypto, calling a cryptocurrency a “gambling contract with a nearly 100% edge for the house.”

Munger also said that a cryptocurrency is “not a currency, not a commodity, and not a security,” adding that “obviously” the U.S. should enact a new federal law that would ban crypto.

According to Munger, the best way to approach crypto is to follow the example of China, which put a blanket ban on crypto in September 2021. The Berkshire Hathaway vice chairman stated:

“What should the U.S. do after a ban of cryptocurrencies is in place? Well, one more action might make sense: Thank the Chinese communist leader for his splendid example of uncommon sense.”
The community was quick to react to Munger’s latest anti-crypto arguments, with many expressing bewilderment about how measures like China’s crypto ban stack up with the United States’ proclamations that it supports freedom.

“The battle lines are being drawn. Freedom or tyranny. Non-custodial wallets are the hill we can’t surrender,” NFT APE author Adam McBride wrote on Twitter.

Others also mocked Munger for not understanding that crypto is virtually unbannable. Indeed, even after “banning” crypto in 2021, China has continued to be the second-largest Bitcoin miner in the world, and possessing crypto is apparently still legal. Moreover, the idea of lifting the crypto ban has been floating around in China for a while.

Given that Munger called cryptocurrency a “gambling contract,” it’s worth noting that gambling is legal under U.S. federal law, despite people losing significant money from it.

According to data from the American Gaming Association, U.S. casinos and mobile gaming apps hit a record $54.93 billion in revenue during the first 11 months of 2022. The revenues came at the cost of Americans losing more money on gambling than ever before by the first quarter of 2022.

Many European countries also allow at least some gambling, with about 420,000 British gamblers losing more than $2,000 per year.

Despite casinos causing significant losses for investors, Europe and the U.S. have not followed in the footsteps of China, which banned most forms of gambling back in 1949. Open / Comment

2023-02-02 11:09:43 ​Lido Finance: Decline in TVL, re-emergence of bears, and everything in between

Lido Finance [LDO], a prominent liquid staking protocol, experienced a drop in its Total Value Locked (TVL) in the past week as a result of a decrease in the values of the native coins within its operating networks, including Ethereum [ETH], Polygon [MATIC], Solana [SOL], Polkadot [DOT], and Kusama [KSM].

According to data from cryptocurrency price tracker CoinMarketCap, ETH’s price fell 4% in the last seven days. Likewise, the prices of SOL, DOT, and KSM fell by 3%, 6%, and 5%, respectively.

At press time, Lido’s TVL was $8.01 billion, having declined by 3% in the last week.

The decline in TVL on Lido occurred despite the launch of a new ETH/LDO factory pool, which gained over $16 million in the last week.

Trouble in Lido’s paradise?
It is no longer news that Lido’s dominance of the liquid staking market has come under threat because of the rise in activity on centralized crypto exchange Coinbase.

According to Delphi Digital, Lido’s market share, which was 85% at the start of 2022, has decreased to 73% following Coinbase’s entry into the liquid staking market in June 2022.

Narrowing it down to the ETH staking market, data from Dune Analytics revealed a persistent drop in Lido’s share of that vertical. As of this writing, Lido only controlled 29% of the market. On May 22, this stood at 32%.

Your LDO gains might be in trouble
LDO’s price, which has risen 109% in the past month, could experience a downturn as analysis of its daily chart suggests the start of a bear market cycle.

An assessment of the alt’s moving average convergence/divergence (MACD) revealed an intersection of the MACD line with the trend line in a downtrend on 27 January. The indicator has since been marked by red histogram bars. In fact, LDO’s price has since dropped by 9%, per CoinMarketCap.

When an asset’s MACD line crosses the trend line in a downtrend, it often signals a potential trend reversal or a change in momentum. As a result, it is considered a bearish crossover, and traders often interpret it as a sell signal.

Also, key momentum indicators such as the Relative Strength Index (RSI) and the Money Flow Index (MFI) were in downtrends. For example, at press time, LDO’s RSI was 52, while its MFI had fallen below the neutral line to be pegged at 37.24.

These showed a persistent drop in LDO accumulation, usually followed by a price reversal. Open / Comment

2023-02-01 06:49:27 ​Is it Too Late to Buy Binance Coin? Crypto Analysts Give Their BNB Price Predictions.

BNB continues to trade just over 3.0% below earlier weekly monthly in the $320s, with traders reluctant to continue bidding the price higher ahead of a barrage of key upcoming macro risk events. These include Wednesday’s Fed policy announcement, Thursday’s ECB and BoE policy meetings and Friday’s US jobs report, as well as a smattering of other tier-one US data releases like the ISM PMI surveys and JOLTs job openings.

The Fed is expected to hike rate by another 25 bps to 4.50-4.75%. Fed Chairman Jerome Powell’s tone on the outlook for further rate hikes (markets are pricing just one more hike in March) will be the key thing for markets – some strategists expect Powell to come across as hawkish, despite a growing mountain of evidence that US inflation is falling back rapidly towards the Fed’s 2.0% target.

Conversely, if macro events this week turn out as a positive for crypto (i.e. a dovish Fed and weak US data spur Fed easing bets), BNB could be looking at an upside break of the $320 resistance area. That would open the door to a rally back towards November 2022’s highs close to $400, a potential 27% rally from current levels.

According to a Twitter post by crypto technical analyst World of Charts, BNB is on the verge of breaking to the north of a long-term pennant structure. If the breakout is confirmed, World of Charts noted, a test of all-time highs is to be expected. Open / Comment

2023-01-31 14:40:58 ​Hackers take over Azuki’s Twitter account, steal over $750K in less than 30 minutes.

Most of the funds stolen were from a single wallet, with $751,321.80 in USDC drained from the malicious link.

Azuki, a popular nonfungible token (NFT) project, had its Twitter account compromised on Jan. 27, leading to hackers stealing over $750,000 worth of USD Coin by posting a malicious “wallet drainer link” posing as a virtual land mint.

Hackers stole $751,321.80 in USDC from a single wallet within half an hour of the malicious links being tweeted, according to Etherscan data provided to Cointelegraph by crypto wallet security firm Wallet Guard.

The data also revealed that hackers stole a further $6,752.62 worth of USDC from various wallets holding 11 NFTs and over 3.9 Ether.

Wallet Guard stated that the total amount stolen was $758,074.42.

Emily Rose, community manager for the anime-inspired NFT project, confirmed via Twitter on Jan. 27 that the Azuki account was hacked, warning users not to click any links from Azuki’s Twitter account.

Azuki’s head of community and product manager, Dem, explained on a Twitter Space hosted by Wallet Guard on Jan. 27 that scammers were able to “post a wallet drainer link” after gaining control of Azuki's Twitter account.

Dem urged users to “stay safe and stay suspicious” while the team attempted to regain control of the account.

Several hours later Azuki stated that it had regained control of its Twitter account via a tweet:

This was confirmed by Rose and Dem retweeting the announcement.

Liz Yang, head of growth at Chiru Labs, the company behind Azuki, told Cointelegraph that the team is “currently in contact with Twitter and investigating the breach,” noting that Azuki “will provide an update once we have more information.”

Ohm Shah, the co-founder of Wallet Guard, told Cointelegraph that “it does not matter” if an account is official or verified and users should treat everything as suspicious until proven otherwise. Shah noted:

“Don’t be the first person that clicks the link. It’s better to be paranoid in Web3 than not.”

Upon Azuki regaining control of the account, it emphasized to its followers in a tweet to always “go out on several channels” to confirm announcements. Open / Comment

2023-01-30 15:26:00 ​Decentraland: Analyzing ‘development activity’ to find out entry position

If you bought Decentraland’s MANA in December or earlier this month, then good for you. It has so far delivered an impressive performance until recently when it faced resistance at a key level.

But the question is- Should investors expect more gains or slashed profits?

Decentraland is still one of the top metaverse projects in the blockchain space. However, the hype for metaverse projects is notably lower than in 2021 and 2022.

Anyone watching out for MANA is probably wondering about its long-term potential due to this. However, it all comes down to the project’s plans for the future and its latest announcement may offer some insights.

According to the update, Decentraland is eying more utility and network growth. The network is working towards bringing more creators on board as part of its growth strategy, But what does this mean for MANA holders?

Development activity is one way to look at it. Decentraland’s plan to usher in more developers on its platform may support healthier development activity in 2023.

Most crypto projects achieved robust development activity since the start of January but Decentraland’s has been irregular and downward for the most part in January. However, it did surge in the last five days.

Healthier development activity has historically been a characteristic of projects that have a long-term focus. If history repeats and Decentraland pulls this off, then we can expect higher confidence levels among investors.

A favorable outcome means we might see more demand for MANA in the next few months. Even so, the short-term outlook is still foggy especially now that demand has slowed down.

Notably, the metaverse alt has been moving sideways since mid-January but it has maintained its position just above the 200-day MA.

MANA’s current position underscores relative strength. Nevertheless, there is still a possibility of a resurgence of volatility.

What should investors expect?
If demand recovers, MANA may usher on another bullish surge in February, possibly pushing towards the next resistance level at $0.80.

Alternatively, a bearish outcome may push as low as $0.60. Decentraland’s network growth has been slowing down since mid-month and is currently at a new monthly low.

On the other hand, it should be noted the realized cap is at a new monthly high. This could signal that there is enough exit liquidity to support profit-taking if investors get spoofed by FUD.

The “glass half full” point of view is that investors are currently holding on to their coins rather than selling. This means there is optimism about a more bullish recovery in the coming weeks. Open / Comment

2023-01-29 09:01:03 ​US prosecutors seek to ban SBF from Signal after alleged witness contact.

It’s alleged that the former FTX CEO attempted to arrange a “constructive relationship” with the current General Counsel of FTX US, Ryne Miller.

Federal prosecutors have requested that former FTX CEO Sam Bankman-Fried’s (SBF) bail conditions are modified to prevent further alleged attempts at influencing witnesses’ testimonies.

Court documents filed on Jan. 27 revealed that The Department of Justice (DOJ) had asked United States District Court Judge Lewis Kaplan to ban Bankman-Fried from communicating with “current or former employees” of FTX or Alameda.

The prosecutors have requested this after they alleged that Bankman-Fried had reached out to Ryne Miller, the current General Counsel of FTX US, over Signal and email on Jan. 15, attempting to “influence” Miller’s testimony. The document quoted:

“I would really love to reconnect and see if there’s a way for us to have a constructive relationship, use each other as resources when possible, or at least vet things with each other.”

The prosecutors also requested that Bankman-Fried is banned from using encrypted communication applications.

The document further alleged that Bankman-Fried’s use of Signal is consistent with “a history” of using the application for obstructive purposes.

It was previously reported in December 2022 that Bankman-Fried denied any involvement or knowledge of a “Wirefraud” group chat on Signal, hours before his arrest by Bahamian police.

The group chat reportedly included members of Bankman-Fried’s inner circle, including FTX co-founder Zixiao “Gary” Wang, FTX engineer Nishad Singh and former Alameda CEO Caroline Ellison, who allegedly used the group to send secret information about FTX and Alameda in the lead-up to the collapse.

This comes after lawyers representing FTX in the bankruptcy proceedings had reportedly argued on Jan. 26 that Bankman-Fried’s immediate family should face questioning regarding any financial benefits they may have received from the exchange. Open / Comment

2023-01-29 02:48:26 ​Fed policy to align bank oversight could limit crypto activities by state banks.

The new policy would align the allowable activities for insured and uninsured state banks and OCC-supervised national banks by making rules for state banks more restrictive.

The United States Federal Reserve Board announced on Jan. 27 that it was issuing a policy statement regardin limitations on banks. The policy seeks to create a level playing field and limit regulatory arbitrage for state banks with deposit insurance, state banks without deposit insurance and national banks, which are overseen by the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC), by allowing them the same scope of permissible activities.

The new policy will limit the activities of state banks by not allowing them to engage in activities not permitted by national banks unless state legislation allows it. In the Federal Register notice, the statement specifically discusses crypto at length. It stated:

“The Board has not identified any authority permitting national banks to hold most crypto-assets. As principal in any amount, and there is no federal statute or rule expressly permitting state banks to hold crypto-assets as principal. Therefore, the Board would presumptively prohibit state member banks from engaging in such activity under section 9(13) of the Federal Reserve Act.”

The notice also said that state banks have proposed issuing “dollar tokens” — that is, stablecoins — and those banks now will be subject to OCC interpretative letters 1174 and 1179, as are national banks. It added:

“The Board generally believes that issuing tokens on open, public, and/or decentralized networks, or similar systems is highly likely to be inconsistent with safe and sound banking practices.”

The statement was issued on the same day that the Fed rejected the application of Wyoming’s Custodia Bank for Federal Reserve System membership.

The Fed beefed up scrutiny on banks engaging in crypto activities in August 2022, when it issued a letter requiring the banks it oversees to disclose plans that include crypto, with a reminder to ensure adequate risk management. The letter applied retrospectively to banks already active in crypto. Open / Comment

2023-01-27 15:20:54 ​BAYC profits soar as NFT demand rises, but what has holders anxious

In a recent development, it was discovered that holders of the Bored Ape Yacht Club [BAYC] were profitable over the last few months. The NFT asset outperformed many others in the crypto space, despite the turbulence of the industry’s markets.

BAYC to the moon?
Furthermore, it was discovered that BAYC and related assets made up 50% of the overall Ethereum [ETH] NFT volume in the past week. This indicated a high level of interest and demand for BAYC and related assets, which was reflected in the growing profitability of BAYC holders.

Additionally, the TVL collected by staking BAYC also increased, according to data provided by Dune Analytics. This was a positive sign for the network’s growth and adoption. However, the APY generated by staking this asset declined materially, which could be a cause for concern for investors.

Moreover, sales for BAYC also surged with a 140% increase over the last 24 hours, according to Dapp Radar. This is a positive sign for the NFT collection’s future growth and profitability.

The average price for Mutant Ape Yacht Club [MAYC] also grew along with the number of holders holding the NFT collection. Its price grew by 14.30% in the last month, according to NFTGO.

Most NFT collections in the BAYC cohort witnessed interest from the crypto space over the last month. This interest in the collection impacted its native token, APE, positively.

No monkey business
According to data provided by Santiment, there was a spike in ApeCoin’s activity. Its price increased along with daily active addresses.

However, the network growth of ApeCoin declined. This suggested that the number of times new addresses transferred APE for the first time decreased over the last few days.

At the time of writing, the price of APE was $5.55 after decreasing by 3.59% in the last 24 hours, according to CoinMarketCap. Open / Comment

2023-01-26 08:00:09 ​Bitcoin mining brings more than money to this East African country.

A Bitcoin mining project in a remote corner of Malawi connects more families to the grid while delivering economic empowerment to an impoverished region.

A Bitcoin mining project that taps into clean, stranded and excess hydro energy in Malawi, a landlocked country in southeastern Africa, has picked up steam. The company behind the project, Gridless, tweeted that there are now “1600 families connected to this remote hydro minigrid in the mountains of southern Malawi.”

The project exploits 50 kilowatts (kW) of stranded energy to test out as a new Bitcoin mining site. Erik Hersman, CEO and co-founder of Gridless, told Cointelegraph that while it’s a brand new mining project, the “impact was immediately felt.”

“The power developer had built these powerhouses a few years ago, but they weren’t able to expand to more families because they’re barely profitable and couldn’t afford to buy more meters to connect more families. So, our deal allowed for them to immediately buy 200 more meters to connect more families.”

Bitcoin miners are flexible but energy-hungry clients. They are a plug-in-and-play solution for sources of excess energy around the world. In Malawi, the miners run off environmentally friendly hydropower.

In Hersman’s words:

“The environmental footprint is quite light, as it is run off a river. And the Bitcoin mining didn’t change any of that.”

It’s Gridless’ second project in Sub-Saharan Africa to date. Late last year, a mining project in Kenya connected a remote community using excess hydropower.

The environment aside, the Bitcoin mine brings economic empowerment and job opportunities to Malawi. Hersman explained that electricity load shedding is common in Malawi, but the 1,600 families using the hydropower source do not have any power issues:

“It’s always amazing to me to see how useful and valuable mini-grids are to the community. It Bitcoin mining immediately changes the education, healthcare, business, logistics and wealth of the community where they go in.” Open / Comment

2023-01-21 19:34:34 ​FTX reboot could falter due to long-broken user trust, say observers

Crypto industry observers have questioned whether customers or investors will ever want to “come near” FTX again.

Several crypto industry commentators have expressed skepticism about FTX CEO John Ray’s vision to potentially reboot the crypto exchange, citing trust issues and “second-class” treatment of customers as reasons why users may not “feel safe to go back.”

Former FTX CEO Sam Bankman-Fried tweeted on Jan. 20 praising John Ray for looking at a reboot of FTX, suggesting it is the best move for its customers.

This came after John Ray told The Wall Street Journal on Jan. 19 that he was considering reviving the crypto exchange to make the users whole.

Ray noted that despite top executives being accused of criminal misconduct, stakeholders have shown interest in the possibilities of the platform coming back — seeing the exchange as a “viable business.”

In comments to Cointelegraph, Binance Australia CEO, Leigh Travers, believes it will be difficult for FTX to secure a license again, particularly as the industry moves into a new year with increased regulation and oversight by regulators.

Travers also noted that since the closure, FTX users have migrated “to other platforms, like Binance.” He questioned whether those users will “feel safe to go back.”

He addressed the issue of FTX governance and controls, with administrators sharing details about some clients getting “preferential treatment,” including “back door switches.” Travers noted:

“How will users feel comfortable going back to a platform that treated some clients as second-class?”

Digital assets lawyer Liam Hennessy, a partner at Australian law firm Gadens, thinks that it would be “very difficult” for FTX — given the reputational damage and lack of trust — to get customers or investors to “come near them again.”

Hennessy was also skeptical whether FTX will ever get approved for a license again, saying that it is “one big question mark” which entirely depends on jurisdictions.

The lawyer believes that in some offshore jurisdictions, it will be easier for the exchange to get license approval, but it will be pointless if its users do not intend to return.

“To jump through the hoops the major jurisdictions will set such as the US, UK and Australia will be a serious challenge.”

Meanwhile, RMIT University Blockchain Innovation Hub senior law lecturer, Aaron Lane, told Cointelegraph that it is “not surprising” that FTX would consider reviving the exchange business, stating that is the purpose of the Chapter 11 process — giving the company the ability to propose a plan to run the business and pay the creditors back “over time with the court’s approval.”

He believes that the “onus will be on FTX,” or a creditor that files a competing plan, to show that creditors will get a “better result” under the revival plan compared to liquidating FTX’s assets.

Lane however also questioned whether customers will ever trust FTX again, saying it is possible that another company looking to launch a new exchange “purposes those assets” rather than developing its own interface from scratch. Open / Comment