Despite some time cycles and oversold conditions hinting that downside pressure may wane, the weekend was the same as it has been for crypto: volatile and bearish. The Sunday Slaughter lived up to its nickname with Bitcoin ($BTC.X) losing -3.4%, Ethereum losing -4.04%, and XRP ($XRP.X) down -5.69%.
Today’s news was mostly muted, with few big announcements or scares. Quieter days are typical for the Summer season – bearish or bullish people like to spend time outside with friends and family, and it’s a good distraction from the depression that extended bear runs can cause.
Today, we’ll look at the continued negative press Binance has gotten and, most importantly, some significant updates with Celsius and Three Arrows Capital – a mix of good and bad. And if you’re wondering what big money thinks about certain altcoins, then the rebalancing done in one of Grayscale’s altcoin funds should be very interesting; unless you’re a Stellar ($XLM.X) fan, then you’d best just avoid that article.
Before we dive in, this is what the market looked like at the end of Monday’s trading:
| Cardano (ADA) |
$0.446
|
-3.46% |
| Binance Coin (BNB) |
$230.90
|
-1.49% |
| Bitcoin (BTC) | $20,452.33 | -1.90% |
| Dogecoin (DOGE) |
$0.064
|
-4.17% |
| Ethereum (ETH) |
$1,138.
|
0.09% |
| Polkadot (DOT) | $6.80 | -0.73% |
| Solana (SOL) |
$38.98
|
1.30% |
| XRP (XRP) |
$0.343
|
0.26% |
| Altcoin Market Cap |
$522 billion
|
-0.23% |
| Total Market Cap |
$937 billion
|
0.17% |
A slew of negative press and bad news related to exchanges continue – and seem to be getting worse. First, Reuters reported that Binance skirted international sanctions against Iran to serve Iranian customers. Now, at first, that sounds nefarious – but let’s put some context here.
The seven Iranian traders interviewed by Reuters all confirmed they used Binance. However, that occurred when Binance didn’t need ID verification, KYC, or AML. Binance wasn’t supposed to allow people from the US to use their service either, but thousands from the US did.
It’s worth noting that a considerable number of exchanges worldwide still have zero KYC or AML requirements beyond having an e-mail and funding your account with crypto. The only gating of US customers is often a warning that is just a butt-covering warning by the exchange with a message that says, ’um, ya, if you’re from the US, we don’t target you to come here, and you’re not supposed to be here.’
In last week’s Litepaper, we reported that Celsius ($CEL.X) paid the entirety of its Bitcoin ($BTC.X) back to Maker ($MKR.X). That sounds good, but it’s like saying your turn signals still work even though your car is totaled. And because bad news begets more bad news, the hedge fund tied to the contagion in the DeFi space, Three Arrows Capital, just added more crap to an already huge pile of crap.
According to a filing with the U.S. Bankruptcy Court (Southern District of New York), suspicions are that the founders of Three Arrows Capital, Su Zhu and Kyle Davies, have fled to Singapore. Additionally, the company’s offices sit abandoned. You can’t make this stuff up.
News broke last night that Celsius has retained the same attorneys representing Voyager Digital ($VYGVF), the latter of which filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy last week.
Grayscale’s GSCPxE (Grayscale Smart Contract Platform Ex-Ethereum Fund), launched in March 2022, just rebalanced its holdings within that fund. Cardano ($ADA.X) remained the allocation leader in the fund and got a massive bump in allocation percentage, while it added Stellar ($XLM.X) and removed Algorand ($ALGO.X).
Cardano ($ADA.X) – 31.49% (prior 24.63%) (5% APY)
Solana ($SOL.X) – 25.43% (prior 24.27%) (8% APY)
Polkadot ($DOT.X) – 13.90% (prior 16.16%) (12-14% APY)
Avalanche ($AVAX.X) – 10.87% (prior 16.96%) (11% APY)
Polygon ($MATIC.X) – 8.45% (prior 9.65%) (8% APY)
Cosmos ($ATOM.X) – 5.29% (new) (9.7% APY) (9.7% APY)
Algorand ($ALGO.X) – 4.37% (prior 4.27%) (0-3% APY)
Stellar ($XLM.X) – removed ($prior 4.06%)
One thing you might not be aware of with these altcoins is that their APYs are quite substantial and earned via staking/validating on their networks or third-party platforms. However, Grayscale doesn’t pass those rewards on as a form of income generation, citing they’re used to pay for “… ongoing expenses.”
Those must be some pretty damn high expenses.
Bullets
Bullets From The Day:
😟 On Saturday, CoinFLEX updated their blog to inform customers that they have commenced arbitration in HKIAC (Hong Kong International Arbitration Centre) for “… the recovery of this $84 million as the individual had a legal obligation under the agreement to pay and has refused to do so.” Rumors are that the individual is Roger Ver, also known as ‘Bitcoin Jesus’ in the crypto community. Read more from CoinFLEX’s blog.
🤝 Crypto exchange FTX came to the rescue again as it lent $120 million to Japanese exchange Liquid Global. A hack occurred on Liquid Global in August 2021 through its MPC (Multi-Party Computation) Wallet – an advanced cryptographic technique that shares the private key collectively through set parties. Liquid Global lost roughly 90$ million in the hack. Get the full story from CoinDesk.
⛑This morning, Voyager Digital ($VYGVF) pushed an update on their blog, clarifying what’s going on and what to expect. While it’s not all roses and daffodils, it may reduce some FUD plaguing the DeFi space. And reducing some FUD right now is extremely important, especially given the ghosting and fleeing some companies have done, like Three Arrows Capital. Read the full blog from Voyager.