CleanSpark (CLSK) – one of the largest publicly traded Bitcoin mining firms – announced on Thursday that it had acquired one of its smaller competitors, GRIID Infrastructure, in an all-stock deal.

The $155 million deal immediately brings 20 megawatts (MW) of additional power to CleanSpark to bolster its mining operations. Another 400 MW of power is expected to be added in Tennessee over the next two years.

CleanSpark Acquired GRIID For $155 Million

The merger agreement required CleanSpark to assume all debts and other obligations from GRIID. It also required CleanSpark to provide GRIID with a $5 million working capital loan, and to pay down a bridge loan of $50.9 million to satisfy other obligations from the smaller miner.

“This acquisition would give us a clear and steady path over the next three years to accomplish in Tennessee what we proudly achieved in Georgia over the past three years,” said Zach Bradford, CleanSpark’s CEO, in a press release.

“That achievement was to build out over 400 MW of infrastructure backed by valuable, long-term power contracts.”

Following the announcement, shares for GRIID tanked more than 50% while CLSK shares popped by 4%, implying that traders viewed the merger agreement as a fire sale.

CleanSpark’s shares closed on Thursday at $16.05 apiece, implying a market cap of $3.6 billion for the firm, according to Google Finance. The company has been one of the best-performing mining stocks year to date (+47%), defying the trajectory of most industry players whose stock sank heavily prior to the Bitcoin halving.

Bitcoin Mining Acquisitions

CleanSpark isn’t the only mining firm to announce an acquisition in recent months. Since late May, Riot Platforms (RIOT) has been attempting a hostile takeover of Bitfarms (BITF), offering to buy out the firm at $2.30 per share.

Bitfarms initially rejected a buyout offer a month prior, with Riot suggesting that the company’s directors were not “acting in the best interests of all shareholders.”

As of Thursday, BITF closed at $2.59 per share. RIOT is down 11% since last month at $9.12 a share.

Core Scientific (CORZ) – the former largest mining firm that recently emerged from bankruptcy – is now eyeing a potential $1 billion buyout offer from cloud computing firm CoreWeave. Since the offer, CORZ shares are up 92% this month.

The post Bitcoin Miner CleanSpark (CLSK) Buys Out GRIID In $155 Million Stock Transaction appeared first on CryptoPotato.

The layer-2 ecosystem remains robust with protocols and EVM (Ethereum Virtual Machine) scaling platforms growing rapidly and becoming ubiquitous, contrary to some bearish claims, said Ethereum community member Ryan Berckmans in a post on X on June 26.

His comments came in response to a post from Movement Labs founder Rushi Manche, who said, “EVM L2s will go to zero. they mostly all suck compared to SOL.”

Berckmans retorted, stating that the L2 ecosystem is still “growing like crazy,” citing ecosystem analytics platforms such as L2beat before adding, “Coinbase made an EVM L2. So did Worldcoin. So did Immutable X.”

Layer-2 Growth Impressive

Additionally, layer-2s are seen as an integral part of Ethereum, not just a scaling solution, he said before arguing that L2s on the second-largest blockchain offer better value than alternative layer-1 networks due to Ethereum’s “credible neutrality” as a base layer.

Moreover, Ethereum’s ecosystem is larger and more diverse than competitors in terms of liquidity, mature protocols, and total value locked, countering Manche’s arguments claiming Solana is superior.

L2s and EVM are killing it ​ For the most part, people betting against L2s and EVM are going to lose hard. ​ I thought the EVM L2 bear post below was particularly wrong and wanted to reply to it in detail. ​ TL;DR ignore the FUD, L2s and EVM are growing to global ubiquity.…

— Ryan Berckmans ryanb.eth (@ryanberckmans) June 26, 2024

Berckmans predicted that L2s will significantly surpass Solana’s transaction throughput in the coming years.

“Regardless of any one L2, the L2 ecosystem’s overall total tps will soon far, far surpass Solana’s tps. In five years, by like 100x.”

He also argued that Ethereum’s later-2 ecosystem is seen as more attractive for corporations and governments due to its security and decentralization properties. He described a “settlement network effect” for Ethereum, where the growing ecosystem of layer-2 protocols increases the benefits and reduces the costs of settling on Ethereum.

Berckmans concluded that Manche’s comments make it sound like EVM L2s are dead and L2s aren’t that great a deal, adding, “But neither of those things is true.”

“What we’re actually seeing is that Ethereum’s L2 model is killing it, and EVM is leading the pack by far.”

L2 Ecosystem Outlook

The total value locked across all L2 protocols is currently $42.86 billion, according to L2beat. Moreover. This TVL has remained steady since March despite crypto markets declining by 18% over the same period. Since the same time last year, L2 TVL has increased by around 280%.

Arbitrum One leads the L2 pack with a TVL of $17 billion and a market share of almost 40%. Coinbase Base is in the second spot with $7.3 billion TVL and 17% share and OP Mainnet is third with $6.4 billion and 15%.

L2beat lists 58 protocols, which is a testament to ecosystem growth compared to the handful that were listed a year or so ago.

The post Ethereum L2 Ecosystem Throughput Set to Outpace Solana by 100x in 5 Years: Analyst appeared first on CryptoPotato.

According to blockchain analytics platform Lookonchain, a Bitcoin wallet that had been inactive for 14 years has reemerged.

The entity deposited 50 BTC worth around $3.05M to Binance.

Early Bitcoin Miner Wallet Moves 50 BTC

The dormant wallet, belonging to an early Bitcoin miner, sprang to life on Thursday, moving its entire balance of 50 BTC worth roughly $3.05 million to the cryptocurrency exchange Binance.

A miner wallet woke up after being dormant for 14 years and deposited 50 $BTC($3.05M) to #Binance 7 hours ago.

The miner earned 50 $BTC from mining on July 14, 2010.

Address: 1PDTDwpgRPdQaCcp3Th6zaMASgcCcm3Jcm pic.twitter.com/toKmBfbUne

— Lookonchain (@lookonchain) June 27, 2024

Lookonchain noted that the wallet address, which had been inactive since July 14, 2010, received its 50 BTC as a mining reward on the same date and has held the cryptocurrencies since then.

Back in 2010, BTC was trading below the $1 mark, and it only surpassed this threshold in February 2011. By June of that year, the price peaked at $30. Currently, the cryptocurrency stands close to $61,000

BTC mined in 2010 are among the earliest and most coveted in the cryptocurrency world. The sudden activation of such coins can signal various market sentiments, including renewed interest from early adopters.

It’s generally accepted that when owners of old wallets become active, it might indicate they plan to sell their holdings. Sometimes, holders move BTC to different addresses for further trading.

Dormant Satoshi Era Bitcoin Wallets Resurface

This phenomenon of dormant wallets awakening isn’t entirely new. Several wallets from the Satoshi era—the period between 2009 and 2011 when Bitcoin’s pseudonymous creator was active—have seen similar activity.

In March 2022, another wallet containing 489 BTC, valued at $20 million at the time, was reactivated after being dormant for 11.4 years. This wallet achieved a return of 42,000,000%.

On-chain analytics firms identified two significant whale wallets in July and August 2023 that had been inactive for over a decade. These whales moved thousands of BTC from their addresses, with one transferring 1,037 BTC worth $37.8 million to a new address and the other moving 1,005 BTC worth $29.7 million at the time.

More recently, in April 2024, another wallet that had been dormant for 14 years moved 50 BTC worth over $3.28 million at the time to Coinbase. Additionally, a major Bitcoin holder who had hibernated for a decade made a move in April, transferring 246 BTC from an address holding 1,701 BTC. This whale had received 4,272 BTC in 2013 when BTC was priced at an average of $29.39.

The post Dormant Bitcoin Miner Wallet Resurfaces After 14 Years, Transfers 50 BTC to Binance appeared first on CryptoPotato.

The US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) might approve the latest tweaks about the spot Ethereum ETFs by July 4, as discussions between asset managers and regulators reach their final stages.

While speaking to several industry insiders, Reuters observed that eight asset managers, including BlackRock, Franklin Templeton, and Grayscale Investments, are closing in on the final stages. Many of these firms launched spot Bitcoin ETFs in January after a decade-long struggle with regulators, and Grayscale is again aiming to convert an existing trust into an ETF.

Ethereum ETFs Poised For July

Executives from two of the firms involved reportedly told Reuters that the process of tweaking the documents has progressed significantly, and only “minor” issues remain to be resolved, which must get a go-ahead before the funds hit the floor.

The approval is expected to be “probably not more than a week or two away,” according to another lawyer.

The latest timeline aligns with Bloomberg’s ETF analyst Eric Balchunas’ revelation earlier this month in which he suggested that the spot Ethereum ETF could be approved before the July 4th US holiday, potentially by July 2nd.

Despite the widespread speculation about the launch date, the SEC and its Chair Gary Gensler have been extremely tight-lipped. In this week’s Bloomberg interview, Gensler expressed optimism about approving these investment vehicles but refrained from offering any specific timeline. He hinted that these funds might go live during the summer.

Last month, the regulatory watchdog approved the 19b-4 forms. Currently, the SEC and the issuers are working on S-1 filings, which must be approved before these products can start trading.

Ethereum ETFs Could Attract $15B in 18 Months

According to Bitwise’s prediction, spot Ethereum ETFs are expected to attract over $15 billion in net inflows within their first 18 months in the US market.

Bitwise’s CIO Matt Hougan based his estimate on Bitcoin ETF data and Ethereum’s market size relative to BTC. Currently, the market cap of the world’s largest digital asset sits at around $1.26 trillion, while Ethereum’s is $432 billion, resulting in a 3:1 ratio.

Almost $56 billion of Bitcoin’s total market cap is invested in the spot Bitcoin ETFs of the US, a figure Hougan anticipates will grow to $100 billion by the end of 2025.

The post Spot Ethereum ETFs Could Launch Next Week, Minor Issues Remain: Report appeared first on CryptoPotato.

The largest United States cryptocurrency exchange, Coinbase, has filed lawsuits against the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) for failing to comply with information requests in closed crypto cases.

According to filings at the United States District Court for the District of Columbia, Coinbase seeks to compel the SEC and FDIC to comply with the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) to respond to information requests from industry participants.

Coinbase Sues SEC and FDIC

Coinbase argues that the SEC has taken a new position, claiming sweeping authority over the growing crypto sector. While the SEC’s claims have no basis in securities laws, the agency has failed to explain properly and, instead, waged an enforcement war against crypto firms.

The exchange said the regulator’s joint effort with other financial watchdogs, like the FDIC, to de-bank crypto firms is aimed at crippling the digital asset industry.

Coinbase and professional services research firm History Associates have requested that the SEC prove its authority over the crypto space by providing records concerning three investigations into such firms and entrepreneurs. One of the investigations is focused on Ethereum’s native asset, Ether, which the SEC said was not a security in 2018.

Last week, the agency closed its investigation into Ethereum 2.0, the proof-of-stake network, suggesting that Ether is still not a security. Although the other investigations had been closed for years, the SEC withheld all records based on the three cases. Coinbase claims the refusals violated the regulator’s FOIA obligations.

“The SEC’s new, opaque, and shifting view of the securities laws deprives regulated parties of the fair notice demanded by due process, leaving them to guess whether the SEC might view their activities as securities transactions and decide to subject them to investigation, prosecution, and backward-looking penalties,” Coinbase insisted.

SEC’s Ongoing Suit Against Coinbase

Coinbase’s chief legal officer, Paul Grewal, further revealed that the FDIC stonewalled requests for letters telling financial institutions to pause crypto-related activities indefinitely. Interestingly, the FDIC’s Office of Inspector General has criticized such actions in the past, claiming that they would limit financial innovation and growth in the crypto space.

“This is no way to regulate. And this is no way to operate a transparent government. Today, we demand better from our financial regulators. We appreciate the Court’s attention to these important issues and look forward to sharing updates in the future,” Grewal stated.

Meanwhile, the SEC has an ongoing lawsuit against Coinbase, arguing that the firm operates an unregistered securities exchange.

The post Coinbase Files Suits Against SEC, FDIC Over Compliance With Crypto Information Requests appeared first on CryptoPotato.

After a bearish correction phase, the price has now reached a crucial support zone, defined by the 100-day moving average and the 0.5-0.618 Fibonacci levels.

Given the strong demand at this juncture, a mid-term bullish rebound is looking likely.

Technical Analysis

By Shayan

The Daily Chart

A detailed examination of the daily chart reveals that Ethereum has entered a significant support zone following a corrective pullback. This zone spans the price range between the 0.5 ($3421) and 0.618 ($3289) Fibonacci levels, coinciding with the critical support of the 100-day moving average ($3387).

This area is poised with potential demand, where market participants might be inclined to open long positions.

Considering these factors, an increase in demand is expected, leading to a mid-term bullish reversal targeting the $4K resistance. However, if the price drops below this support, the next significant defense line for buyers will be the 200-day moving average.

Source: TradingView The 4-Hour Chart

The 4-hour chart clearly shows Ethereum’s recent corrective move, with the price forming a bullish continuation flag pattern.

If the price breaks out from the upper boundary of this pattern, it signals a potential continuation of the bullish trend. Currently, the cryptocurrency is near the lower boundary of this flag, aligning with the critical support of around $3.3K.

If buyers re-enter the market and demand rises, the price is expected to break above the flag’s upper boundary at $3.6K, leading to a strong uptrend towards the $4K resistance.

Conversely, if sellers push the price below the $3.3K support, a drop toward the substantial $2.9K support will likely follow. In the mid-term, the price is expected to remain within the $3.3K-$3.6K range until a breakout occurs.

Source: TradingView Sentiment Analysis

By Shayan

While Ethereum currently rests in a critical support region with significant potential demand, analyzing the future market sentiment is essential for forecasting its next moves.

The following chart highlights the Ethereum funding rate metric, which indicates whether buyers or sellers are executing orders more aggressively. Positive funding rates suggest bullish sentiment, whereas negative rates imply bearish sentiment.

The funding rate metric recently showed a notable increase after a period of slight declines, which coincided with a corrective phase in Ethereum’s price.

This uptick suggests that demand is present near the crucial support level of $3.3K, potentially halting further downward pressure and initiating a bullish reversal. If the funding rate metric continues its upward trend, it indicates that the futures market sentiment is turning bullish, making a mid-term bullish reversal more likely.

Source: CryptoQuant

The post ETH Increases Toward $3.5K, Erases Much of Earlier Losses (Ethereum Price Analysis) appeared first on CryptoPotato.

Cryptocurrency-based exchange-traded funds continue to be on the main stage in the US, with the latest filing from VanEck taking into account the fifth-largest digital asset – Solana.

Shortly after the news broke, the native token’s price shot up by 7% to $150.

Matthew Sigel, the company’s Head of Digital Assets Research, highlighted the development on X. He noted that the firm believes Solana is very similar to Ethereum as it operates as an “open-source blockchain software designed to handle various applications, including payments, trading, gaming, and social interactions.”

He added that, unlike Ethereum, Solana works as a “single global state machine” that lacks sharding or layer-2 networks.

The US Securities and Exchange Commission approved spot Bitcoin ETFs in January this year after a decade-long battle. However, the US regulators are certain that the underlying asset (BTC) is a commodity.

Just last month, the securities watchdog reluctantly greenlighted spot Ethereum ETFs, but it continues to delay their launch since ETH’s stance is still uncertain, according to the SEC.

As such, SOL’s stature is still quite questionable. However, Sigel outlined several reasons why VanEck believes it is a commodity, like ether and bitcoin.

“We believe the native token, SOL, functions similarly to other digital commodities such as #bitcoin and #ETH. It is utilized to pay for transaction fees and computational services on the blockchain. Like ether on the Ethereum network, SOL can be traded on digital asset platforms or used in peer-to-peer transactions.”

SOL’s price reacted immediately to the news, soaring by 7% in minutes. The asset had stumbled to $135 amid the market-wide correction but jumped to $150 after the VanEck announcement.

The post SOL Price Skyrockets 7% in Minutes as VanEck Files for Solana ETF in the US appeared first on CryptoPotato.

The U.S. government has transferred $240 million worth of Bitcoin (BTC) to a Coinbase Prime address.

According to Arkham Intelligence, the 3,940 BTC sent to Coinbase were originally forfeited from Silk Road vendor and narcotics dealer Banmeet Singh during his January trial.

Seizures and Legal Actions

In late 2021, the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) seized over 50,000 BTC, valued at $3.4 billion, from the illicit Silk Road marketplace. Approximately five months later, officials sold 9,861 BTC for over $215 million. By July 2023, an additional 9,000+ BTC were sold, leaving the government’s wallet with around 30,000 BTC.

It was later confirmed in court that the U.S. government had seized a total of 69,370 BTC and other cryptocurrencies linked to the Silk Road dark web marketplace. The most recent Bitcoin movement by the authorities occurred in April when they transferred BTC valued at approximately $2 billion.

Update: US Government Sends $240M BTC to Coinbase Prime

The US Government just moved 3,940 BTC ($240M) to Coinbase Prime.

This BTC was originally seized from narcotics trafficker Banmeet Singh, and forfeited at trial in January 2024.

Transaction: https://t.co/hZ1CwqWCmF pic.twitter.com/9t6k8Wdizq

— Arkham (@ArkhamIntel) June 26, 2024

The U.S. government holds large quantities of Bitcoin acquired through seizures and asset forfeitures. According to Lookonchain, the country possesses 213,546 BTC, valued at approximately $13.07 billion.

Banmeet Singh, the individual linked to the latest transfer, was arrested in 2019 by British authorities in London on drug distribution charges. Extradited to the United States in 2023, he was accused of running a narcotics smuggling network from 2012 to 2017 with distributors across multiple states, including Maryland, New York, and Florida.

As part of his judgment, Singh was forced to surrender over 8,100 BTC, valued at around $150 million at the time, marking the largest cryptocurrency seizure by the U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA).

Market Impact and Regulatory Scrutiny

The recent transfer had an immediate impact on the cryptocurrency market. Following the Wednesday transaction, the total cryptocurrency market experienced a modest decline, with BTC prices dropping below $60,800. At the writing time, the asset is trading at around $61,000.

Coinbase Prime, the platform used for this latest transaction, has become the preferred vehicle for government liquidations. However, Coinbase itself has faced regulatory scrutiny. Under the leadership of Gary Gensler, the SEC charged the exchange with operating an unregistered securities platform and acting as an unlicensed broker-dealer.

Coinbase has denied these allegations and is contesting them in court, arguing that the SEC has failed to provide clear regulations and registration processes for crypto businesses.

Silk Road, a dark web marketplace created by Ross Ulbricht in 2011, remains a significant part of the history of Bitcoin and darknet markets. The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) arrested Ulbricht in 2013, leading to the shutdown of Silk Road.

The post Is The US Government Selling $240 Million in Bitcoin (BTC) Related to Silk Road? appeared first on CryptoPotato.

The US spot Bitcoin ETFs appear to be slowly recovering as the collective inflows reached $21.52 million on June 26th, continuing with the positive momentum that began on Tuesday.

However, BlackRock’s iShares Bitcoin Trust (IBIT) has not reported any new investments for the past four days. This isn’t its highest streak, though, as in April, the fund recorded five straight days of no inflows.

It is important to understand that BlackRock’s activity has been on a downtrend, with only two minor inflows since June 14, both under $2 million.

Zero flows in an ETF occur when the supply and demand balance out, thereby not promoting the creation or redemption of shares, as previously explained by Bloomberg ETF analyst James Seyffart.

This lack of inflows, however, does not necessarily mean that there’s no trading activity but rather that the net flow isn’t significant enough to require share adjustments.

Other spot Bitcoin ETFs such as BITB by Bitwise, BTCO by Invesco and Galaxy Digital, and BRRR by Valkyrie offerings also experienced a similar fate of zero flows on the same day.

Contrastingly, Fidelity’s FBTC saw the largest net inflows of the day, amounting to $19 million as per SoSoValue data. The fund saw a continuous 7-day streak of outflows from June 13 to 24. This trend has since reversed, with FBTC leading the pack as the spot Bitcoin ETFs broke away from the negative streak on June 26.

Grayscale’s GBTC, which hadn’t seen positive flows since June 5, attracted just over $4 million yesterday.

Since their introduction in January, these investment vehicles have attracted $14.44 billion in net inflows.

The post BlackRock’s IBIT Stays Stagnant Despite Bitcoin ETFs Bounce Back With $21.5M in Inflows appeared first on CryptoPotato.

Bitcoin’s underwhelming price actions continue as the asset failed to maintain above $61,000 and has headed toward the coveted $60,000 support level.

The altcoins are in a similar state, with DOGE, ADA, SHIB, LINK, PEPE, NEAR, and others dropping by more than 3% in the past day alone.

BTC to Lose $60K?

The weekend went in a familiar fashion as BTC’s price had stalled at just over $64,000. The lack of any action on the ETF front resulted in little to no volatility on Saturday and Sunday.

The landscape changed for the worse on Monday when the bears stepped up on the gas pedal. In a matter of hours, they pushed the cryptocurrency south hard, and BTC slumped to $58,400 by Tuesday morning. This became its lowest price point in almost two months.

The bulls managed to intervene at this point and drove bitcoin to over $60,000 almost immediately. It even spiked to $62,400 during the day but failed to continue upward or even maintain its current position.

Since then. bitcoin has retraced by nearly two grand and now sits well below $61,000. Its market cap has dropped below $1.2 trillion once again, and its dominance over the alts has taken a hit to 50.6% on CG.

Bitcoin/Price/Chart 27.06.2024. Source: TradingView DOT Goes Away From $6

The larger-cap alts have also bled out in the past day. Binance Coin, Ripple, Solana, Tron, and Ethereum are among the least hit alts, having all dropped by around 1%.

However, DOGE, ADA, LINK, SHIB, NEAR, and PEPE have declined by more than 3% within the same timeframe. FET, on the other hand, has plummeted by 11% to under $1.55.

KAS is the only notable gainer from the larger-cap alts, having surged by 8% to $0.175.

The total crypto market cap has shed over $30 billion overnight and is down to $2.365 trillion.

Cryptocurrency Market Overview. Source: QuantifyCrypto

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The ongoing case between Ripple Labs and the United States Securities and Exchange Commission is in its trial phase. And although this is technically the point of the lawsuit where it is supposed to get resolved, there’s no telling when it might actually end.

That said, here’s what’s been going on lately as of June 27th.

Current Standing in the Ripple v. SEC Lawsuit

One of the most important developments in the past few weeks was that the Commission actually lowered its demand for a fine from a whopping $2 billion to $102.6 million.

The SEC stated at the time:

“Ripple avoids comparing the Terraform settlement’s penalty to the gross profit of the violative conduct. That ratio ($420 million/$3.587 billion) is significantly higher: 11.7%. Applying it to the $876.3 million in gross profits, the SEC here asks the court to disgorge, which results in a much larger figure, a $102.6 million penalty, than the $10 million ceiling Ripple insists on.”

Ripple’s legal team demanded a lower penalty to the tune of no more than $10 million.

Meanwhile, the SEC’s Chief of the Crypto Asset and Cyber Unit – David Hirsh – resigned.

Ripple is also facing legal challenges on another front – in California, where its CEO Brad Garlinghouse is a defendant in a civil lawsuit. However, recently, there have been positive developments, with the company’s chief lawyer noting:

The CA judge dismissed all allegations suggesting that Ripple violated federal securities law. The NY ruling that XRP is not a security stands undisturbed.

Bashing Gary Gensler

Both Stuart Alderoty (Ripple’s legal chief) and Brad Garlinghouse recently took definitively negative stands against the SEC’s chairman Gary Gensler.

The latter said the other day, talking about crypto:

This is a field where the leading lights from a couple of years ago are either in jail, about to go to jail, or awaiting extradition.

To this, Garlinghouse responded:

Absolute nonsense coming from Gary Gensler today. 

And this slender about “all crypto execs going to jail” from the man who completely missed FTX (and actually cozied up to SBF) and wasn’t even invited to the DOJ announcement about Binance.

If he was really “working for the American people” as he says, he would have been fired a long time ago.

Gensler will cause Biden to lose the election.

Meanwhile, Alderoty also had something to say on Gensler’s recent comments.

Note to @GaryGensler: The courts aren’t “adjusting”…they are finding that you are breaking the law by exceeding your statutory authority. https://t.co/rne7JRygm2

— Stuart Alderoty (@s_alderoty) June 26, 2024

The post Ripple v. SEC Lawsuit Update June 27th appeared first on CryptoPotato.

The past couple of days were action-packed, with the cryptocurrency market experiencing considerable volatility. Fortunately, this time, it was leaning toward the upside as most of the coins attempted to recover from the declines suffered at the beginning of the week.

In this recap, we will examine what happened with Ripple, Shiba Inu, and more.

Ripple (XRP) Price Speculations

As CryptoPotato reported earlier, XRP saw a tremendous increase in its trading volume earlier in the week as the market was going through considerable turbulence.

At the time of this writing, the cryptocurrency is trading at a 5.7% loss for the week at around $0.47.

Now, as most of you may know, Ripple Labs is involved in a massive case against the United States Securities and Exchange Commission. The regulator is seeking a fine upwards of $100 million for the company’s alleged failure to register its sales of XRP as securities. Ripple, on the other hand, argues that XRP doesn’t meet the criteria of being a security.

We decided to poke ChatGPT, asking what the price of XRP would be if it weren’t for that lawsuit.

The AI-powered language model outlined that multiple factors are to be considered, such as market sentiment, adoption and use cases, and more. Ultimately, though, it concluded that the price would likely have been higher.

It’s also worth noting that amid this ongoing uncertainty, XRP’s market depth remained steady.

Shiba Inu (SHIB) Developments

Elsewhere, Shiba Inu was also impacted by the market turbulence. Unlike XRP, it charted a more considerable decline, trading at an 8.5% loss for the past seven days.

A few days ago, SHIB’s trading volume also spiraled and soared by more than 100%.

Data from Shibburn reveals that the cryptocurrency’s burn rate has actually declined by more than 53% over the past 24 hours, leading to around 9 million SHIB tokens being destroyed.

Source: Shibburn Other Important Headlines

In what seems to be one of the most important news of the week, WikiLeaks’ co-founder Julian Assange is finally back in Australia a free man.

Interestingly enough, he needed $500,000 to cover his jet fare. His wife turned to the online community for help, and a mystery donor sent exactly $500K in BTC to his address.

Speculations are that it was Jack Dorsey – Twitter’s co-founder, who tweeted “Safe passage through” at the exact same time the donation was made.

The post Ripple (XRP) Price Speculations, Shiba Inu (SHIB) Developments, and More: Crypto Bits Recap June 27th appeared first on CryptoPotato.

According to data shared by Lookonchain, the German government has transferred an additional 750 BTC, valued at approximately $46.35 million. Around $15.41 million or 250 BTC of this amount was sent to crypto exchanges Bitstamp and Kraken.

Despite these transfers, the entity still maintains a significant Bitcoin reserve, currently holding 45,609 BTC, which has an estimated value of $2.81 billion.

Large Transfers and Test Transactions

Data revealed that the German government also transferred 0.001 BTC to Flow Traders, which may be a test transaction. This suggests that the authorities may be exploring additional avenues for selling the Bitcoin holdings through this trading firm.

The recent movements are part of a larger trend, with over 2,000 BTC sold from the address identified to be of the government, which coincided with a period of market turmoil.

The development comes just a day after Arkham Intelligence flagged a wallet linked to the German Federal Criminal Police Office (BKA), which moved $24 million worth of Bitcoin to Kraken and Coinbase exchanges. An additional $30 million in BTC was transferred to a new untagged wallet. These movements are in addition to transfers made on June 19 and 20, totaling $130 million and $65 million, respectively.

The origin of this Bitcoin trove can be traced back to the seizure by the BKA from the operators of Movie2k.to, a now-defunct film piracy website that was active in 2013. The seized amount, nearly 50,000 BTC, was worth over $2 billion at the time of confiscation. The BKA received these funds in mid-January following a “voluntary transfer” from a suspect involved in the case.

Bitcoin Retreats Again

Recent fluctuations in the market seemed to be influenced by the German government’s Bitcoin transfers, as well as other factors that briefly caused a dip in the underlying asset’s price, dragging it below $60,000 earlier this week. The latest action of Bitcoin divestment has once again added pressure to the market.

The top digital asset had soared to $62,400 after the market-wide crash, but the overall pressure resulted in another decline. As of now, BTC struggles to remain above $61,000.

The post Here’s How Much BTC the German Govt Has Transferred to Exchanges So Far appeared first on CryptoPotato.

Ethereum’s status as an ultrasound money system becomes increasingly questionable as the days go by, especially as its supply keeps increasing at a high rate.

Since mid-April 2024, about a month after the Ethereum network underwent the Dencun upgrade, more than 112,000 ether (ETH) has been added to the market at the fastest daily rate after the Merge.

The Effects of Dencun

Over the years, Ethereum has witnessed several developments that have led to the network are we know it today The Merge in September 2022 marked its transition from a proof-of-work consensus mechanism network to that of proof-of-stake.

In mid-March, Ethereum underwent another upgrade that reduced the transaction fees of its layer-2 networks by roughly 4x and enhanced the blockchain’s scalability by expanding its capacity. Dencun introduced nine Ethereum improvement proposals (EIPs), including EIP-4844, which implemented proto-danksharding, a mechanism that allowed for data blobs.

With blobs, layer-2 solutions like Arbitrum, Optimism, and Polygon became able to submit transaction data to Ethereum for collective settlement within a dedicated blobspace without additional expenses.

It is worth noting that Ethereum implemented some upgrades to ensure it remained deflationary before Dencun came. One such was the London upgrade that took place in August 2021. London introduced a mechanism that removed ETH from circulation with every transaction by burning a portion of the network’s gas fees. The Merge further cemented this approach to deflation and lowered ETH’s inflation rate by 90%.

ETH Now Inflationary

Since Dencun, Ethereum’s transaction fees have been low, meaning less ETH has been burned. On-chain analysts believe Ethereum is no longer deflationary, as the new ETH supply has turned positive. The amount of fees burned on Ethereum is no longer positively correlated with higher network activity; fewer fees are burned regardless of how many users are transacting on the network.

Nevertheless, the total supply of ETH since the Merge has plunged significantly, with an overall reduction of 345,000 ETH. Around 1.36 billion ETH has been issued, but more than that has been burned.

With Ethereum’s inflationary rate increasing post-Dencun, the purchasing power of ETH is reducing, which may have a negative impact on investors.

Meanwhile, ETH was worth $3,374 at the time of writing, down 4.8% in the past week in correlation with the drawdown in the crypto market.

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Julian Assange’s Bitcoin wallet received $500,000 worth of Bitcoin from a mystery donor on Tuesday, on-chain data shows.

The donation follows the whistleblower’s release from the United Kingdom’s high-security Belmarsh prison on Monday, after reaching a plea deal with U.S. authorities following five years behind bars.

Bitcoin Brings Assange Home

According to blockchain data, a donation of 8.2 BTC ($492,254) was transferred from a multisignature wallet to Assange’s Bitcoin donation address, as displayed on the freeassange.org website.

Early on Wednesday, the WikiLeaks founder’s wife Stella Assange called on followers for a final show of financial support, seeking $520,000 to pay debt to the Australian government. Assange was barred from taking commercial flights for his route to Saipan for his court appearance, and later back home to Australia, and thus needed money to use charter Flight VJ199 for the journey.

Though the family successfully raised over 78% of their target funds through Crowdfunder as of Wednesday, the Bitcoin donation received Tuesday covered nearly the entire debt expense.

Assange walked out a free man after pleading guilty in court to one charge of espionage on Wednesday, and has since returned home to Australia. Judge Ramona Manglona noted that Assange’s actions caused “no actual physical harm” following his plea.

Who Sent The Bitcoin?

Two men appear to have subtly – though not directly – claimed credit for the donation. One was internet personality Andrew Tate, who replied with an emoji of a gift to someone calling attention to the transaction over Twitter.

The online Bitcoin community was more skeptical of Tate’s claim, calling on him to sign the transaction personally to prove his control of the senders’ address. However, observers later noticed a subtle claim from another wealthy personality with much deeper roots in the Bitcoin community.

“Safe passage through,” tweeted Twitter co-founder Jack Dorsey on Tuesday at 5:03 pm ET – the exact time that the transaction was sent through on chain.

Dorsey’s company Block spearheads numerous Bitcoin infrastructure initiatives. It includes a beginner-friendly multi-signature wallet vendor, a mining chip manufacturer, and a platform for buying Bitcoin – CashApp. He’s also repeatedly donated money to Bitcoin developers, and holds BTC on his firm’s balance sheet.

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Creditors of the bankrupt cryptocurrency exchange FTX are now faced with the option of receiving their assets in cash or crypto.

A filing in the United States Bankruptcy Court for the District of Delaware revealed that Judge John Dorsey had approved the solicitation packages and ballots needed for the exchange’s customers to communicate their preferences. The deadline for voting is August 16, and Judge Dorsey will decide on the matter in early October.

Cash or Crypto for FTX Repayments

FTX’s proposed reorganization plan seeks to repay creditors the U.S. dollar value of their crypto assets at the time of the exchange’s collapse in cash. The bankruptcy estate proposed a 118% return for 98% of creditors with claims less than $50,000. In addition, non-governmental creditors will receive 100% of their claims and potential additional interest payments of up to 9% from when FTX collapsed.

The embattled crypto trading platform also disclosed that it had amassed more than was needed to repay affected parties. While creditors lost approximately $11 billion when FTX went bankrupt in 2022, the estate has gotten over $16 billion from consolidating funds and selling assets, including properties belonging to former FTX executives.

When FTX halted withdrawals and imploded in November 2022, bitcoin (BTC) traded at around $16,000. However, at the time of writing, the crypto asset was worth over $61,000, recording a 281% increase since then. Besides BTC, the total crypto market cap has more than doubled since November 2022, from $1 trillion to $2.27 trillion, indicating that other crypto assets, including large-cap altcoins, have also rallied.

FTX Creditors Object Plan

Considering the growth witnessed by the crypto market in the past 20 months, it would be deemed unfair that FTX creditors receive the cash value of their holdings at the time of the collapse. However, FTX lawyers argue that the proposed plan is in line with bankruptcy laws, which demand that the exchange repay claims in accordance with their value while filing for Chapter 11.

Additionally, FTX lawyers insisted that implementing the cash repayment plan would ensure creditors are not subject to capital gain taxes.

Meanwhile, FTX creditors, led by activist Sunil Kavuri, filed an objection to the proposed plan earlier this month. They argued that the plan failed to meet certain requirements of the Bankruptcy Code, including property rights issues, consistent debtors liquidation analysis, and satisfying the best interest test.

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Stablecoins have witnessed significant growth this year. Among them, USDT remains a leader, but other ones, such as Circle-backed USDC, are also seeing considerable activity.

As such, USDC’s recent deposits to centralized crypto exchanges could signal investors buying the dip amidst several market corrections in recent weeks.

USDC Deposits Surge

According to IntoTheBlock’s Head of Research, Lucan Outumuro’s latest findings, USDC’s net inflow into centralized crypto exchanges reached a one-year high of $228 million on June 24. This surge suggests investors are depositing stablecoins to capitalize on lower cryptocurrency prices.

Further validating this trend is a recent observation from CryptoQuant co-founder Ki Young Ju, who noted that while the stablecoin market is increasing, its ratio to Bitcoin’s market mirrors previous all-time highs.

The exchange reserves ratio also indicates that stablecoins have already been utilized as buy-side liquidity. Such a scenario implied that stablecoins may not drive the next market upswing without new inflows.

“Stablecoin market cap is increasing, but its ratio to BTC market cap is similar to previous ATH levels. Exchange reserves ratio as well. This suggests stablecoins have already been used as buy-side liquidity and won’t drive the next leg up without new inflows.”

Room for Growth?

Bitcoin may have been up by almost 103% over the past year, but its trajectory over the past month has been disappointing. After subsequent corrections, the cryptocurrency was trading near $61,400. But it is also important to understand that these declines may offer unique long-term buying opportunities for market players.

Subtle hints of recovery include the US spot Bitcoin ETF’s minor inflow of $31 million, which reversed the week-long outflow streak.

On the technical side of things, Bitcoin’s RSI has moved from heavily oversold levels to around 33 at the time of writing, which is still very low. This essentially suggests significant potential for growth for the world’s largest digital asset.

Experts also suggest the formation of a hidden bullish divergence for Bitcoin on the daily RSI, indicating that the asset could potentially be on the cusp of a bullish breakout.

“A hidden bullish divergence is forming for BTC on the daily RSI. In addition, RSI tagged the oversold territory. Last two times it happened Bitcoin went berserk mode.”

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Ripple chief executive officer Brad Garlinghouse has slammed Gary Gensler, the chairman of the United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), for his recent slander about most crypto executives going to jail.

Garlinghouse stated in a tweet that Gensler and his approach to crypto regulation would cause U.S. President Joe Biden to lose the upcoming elections.

Gensler on Crypto Execs

During an interview with Bloomberg on Tuesday, Gensler spoke about the U.S. crypto industry, the upcoming launch of the Ethereum exchange-traded funds (ETF), crypto regulation, and the fate of industry executives.

While the SEC chair remained mum on the timing of the launch of the Ethereum ETFs, stating that discussions were progressing smoothly, he refuted claims about inconsistencies between crypto and securities laws, insisting there was no such thing.

Gensler said the crypto space is rife with non-compliance and has caused significant harm to American investors. According to Gensler, the lack of compliance is evident in the number of top crypto executives who are either in jail or awaiting sentencing.

“This is a field where the leading lights from a couple of years ago are either in jail, about to go to jail, or awaiting extradition. Think about it. This is that field. That’s the field right now where the public has really been harmed. And there’s significant non-compliance in the field,” Gensler stated.

Costing Biden the Elections

Criticizing Gensler, Garlinghouse called his comments “absolute nonsense.” The Ripple chief said the crypto executives slander was coming from someone who missed the bankrupt exchange FTX’s fraudulent scheme and even “cozied up” to the platform’s founder Sam Bankman-Fried, who has been sentenced to 25 years in prison for his role in the case.

In addition, Garlinghouse noted that Gensler’s incompetence was evident in his absence from the Department of Justice’s announcement of a multi-billion-dollar settlement with Binance, the world’s largest crypto exchange.

“If he was really ‘working for the American people’ as he says, he would have been fired a long time ago. Gensler will cause Biden to lose the election,” the Ripple CEO added.

Garlinghouse’s remarks echo that of billionaire entrepreneur and crypto investor Mark Cuban, who has stated in the past months that Gensler could cost Biden the elections because of young American citizens who own crypto.

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Ethereum spot ETFs will accumulate over $15 billion in net inflows within their first 18 months of hitting the U.S. market, predicted crypto asset manager Bitwise on Wednesday.

The firm’s year-and-a-half-long forecast would roughly match the net haul from Bitcoin ETFs ($14.4 billion) since their launch five months ago – from which excitement has helped drive BTC to new all-time highs.

Calculating Ethereum’s ETF Flows

Bitwise CIO Matt Hougan based his estimate on Bitcoin’s ETF figures and compared Ethereum to the overall size of Bitcoin’s market.

At present, Bitcoin’s market cap is $1.26 trillion, compared to Ethereum’s $432 billion market cap – implying a 3:1 asset ratio. Of said Bitcoin, $56 billion is locked within U.S. Bitcoin ETFs, which Hougan expects will rise to $100 billion by the end of 2025.

“By this logic, spot Ethereum ETPs will need $35 billion in AUM to reach parity,” he argued.

This figure doesn’t imply $35 billion of inflows, however. Firstly, Grayscale’s Ethereum Trust (ETHE) will immediately convert into an ETF at launch day with $10 billion from its outset, much like the Grayscale Bitcoin Trust (GBTC) converted holding $30 billion in assets. Factoring this in, Hougan reduces his estimate for ETF flows to $25 billion.

Still, the proportional differences between Bitcoin and Ethereum ETP sizes in other jurisdictions are almost identical. In Europe, Bitcoin ETPs hold €4.6 billion to Ethereum’s €1.3 billion. In Canada, Bitcoin ETPs control CAD 4.9 billion, while Ethereum-based funds own CAD $1.4 billion.

‘The fact that the split is roughly in line with the relative market capitalization of the two assets adds to my confidence that this kind of break-down reflects “normal” demand,” Hougan wrote.

Assuming a conservative ratio 78% BTC, 22% ETH as seen in in Europe, this puts Hougan’s estimate down to $18 billion for Ethereum ETF inflows.

Correcting For Cash And Carry

The estimate must also correct for the Bitcoin ETF market’s “carry trade,” Hougan said.

Analysts in recent months have highlighted that many institutions buying the Bitcoin ETFs are simply doing a “cash and carry trade” to earn risk-free yield, by longing the spot market while shorting the futures market. Since Bitcoin futures are often directionally long-biased, yields are usually quite high for this trade.

However, Hougan said the Ethereum basis trade is “not reliably profitable” enough for non-staked assets, meaning Ethereum ETFs won’t garner demand for this reason. “Removing carry-trade assets from our model cuts our flow estimate from $18 billion to $15 billion” he said.

With $15 billion of inflows, Hougan said the Ethereum ETF would be a historic success. Only four ETFs launched since January 2020 have gathered inflows at that level.

“ETH is one of the best-performing assets of all time, and in my honest opinion its best days are ahead of it,” Hougan concluded.

In a research report earlier this month, K33 Research predicted that the Ethereum ETFs would haul $4 billion of inflows within their first five months on the market. Back in March, Standard Chartered predicted that the ETFs would gather $45 billion in capital inflows within their first 12 months.

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American entrepreneur and Rich Dad Poor Dad author Robert Kiyosaki has revealed that he made his first Bitcoin (BTC) purchase when the asset was worth $6,000 due to encouragement from former Goldman Sachs executive Raoul Pal.

According to Kiyosaki, his first 30 BTC purchase has incurred substantial returns over the years; hence, he believes Pal’s predictions that the cryptocurrency would soon hit the Banana Zone.

Pal’s Banana Zone Prediction

Last week, Pal discussed the Banana Zone with crypto trader Scott Melker on the latter’s YouTube channel. For the uninitiated, the Banana Zone, a term Pal coined, refers to a period of sustained upward price movement in the financial market.

Pal believes the Banana Zone is coming for the crypto market despite the bloodshed that has seen digital assets lose substantial portions of their value. During the interview with Melker, Pal predicted that the uptrend would likely occur toward the year’s end as crypto assets historically tend to rally during the last quarters of presidential election years.

The former Goldman Sachs executive stated that it did not matter if it took assets like BTC, ether (ETH), and Solana (SOL) weeks or months to break their recent all-time highs; the important thing is that they would accelerate.

In his tweet, Kiyosaki said he believed Pal knew what he was talking about because of his professional experience as a top executive at Goldman Sachs. Additionally, Pal recommended that he kickstart his investment in Bitcoin.

“Because of his encouragement, I bought 30 Bitcoin at $6,000. Today those same Bitcoins are priced at around $60,000 and I have continued to buy Bitcoin more every month. Thanks to Raoul’s YouTube lessons. I understand why Bitcoin is entering ‘The Banana Zone,'” Kiyosaki said.

Kiyosaki Is Buying the Dip

Kiyosaki further reiterated his warnings about Bitcoin being the people’s money or “rules-based money” and fiat being the government’s money or “debt-based money.” He urged his followers to stack up rules-based money like BTC because it makes investors richer, while the other makes them poorer.

“Hang on tight as Bitcoin lifts off into the ‘Banana Zone,'” he added.

Meanwhile, Kiyosaki revealed two days ago that he is waiting to buy the Bitcoin dip. He advised people who are terrified by market crashes to sell their assets and hang onto their jobs.

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