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Crypto Watchlist: Biggest Losers This Week (AVAX, MATIC, KCS)

by Blockchain NewsJuly 3, 2022

The digital currency ecosystem has continued to show signs of weakness with the combined crypto market capitalization pegged at $862.19 billion at the time of writing.

The past week was yet another tough one as notable circumstances further dampened the sentiments of investors from stacking up liquidity into the ecosystem.

While MicroStrategy Incorporated and El Salvador bought the Bitcoin (BTC) dip, the bullish gesture was not sufficient to wade off the impacts of the liquidation of Three Arrows Capital (3AC) as ordered by a British Virgin Island (BVI) court.

With most coins trading in the negative, here is a look into the three coins with the biggest weekly losses.

Avalanche (AVAX)

Avalanche is a layer one blockchain that functions as a platform for decentralized applications and custom blockchain networks. It is regarded as one of the fastest blockchain protocols as measured by time to finality.

Despite the dip, the Avalanche ecosystem has continued to stay vibrant riding on the $230 million ecosystem fund it launched months ago. However, this has not helped the AVAX coin which is currently changing hands at $15.94, down 1.94% in the past 24 hours and by 23.90% in the past week. AVAX is one of the biggest losers for the week as analysts are advising traders to short the coin.

Polygon (MATIC)

Polygon (previously known as the Matic Network) is the first well-structured, easy-to-use platform for Ethereum scaling and infrastructure development. Powered by the MATIC token, the protocol’s future is currently in doubt as The Merge of Ethereum’s Proof-of-Work (PoW) with the new Proof-of-Stake (PoS) is on track to be completed very soon.

The token is trading at $0.4551, down 23.44% in the past 24 hours. The token has lost over 84% of its price value since it recorded its all-time high (ATH) of $2.92 back in December last year.

KuCoin Token (KCS)

KCS is the native token of KuCoin, which was launched back in 2017 as a profit-sharing token that allows traders to draw value from the exchange. At a price of $8.20 and a 25.33% drop in the week-to-date period, the KCS coin ranks as the worst loser amongst the top 100 digital currencies listed on CoinMarketCap.

The fall in the KCS price might be attributed to a FUD spread in its community chances are that the trading platform will halt withdrawals as it is also distressed, a claim that has been debunked by CEO, Johnny Lyu.

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FTX’s Sam Bankman-Fried Eyes Bailing Out Jittered Crypto Miners After Inking BlockFi Deal

by Blockchain NewsJuly 3, 2022

Sam Bankman-Fried, the CEO and founder of crypto exchange FTX, revealed that he was looking at the option of making acquisitions in the limping crypto mining sector, according to a Bloomberg report.

This revelation comes after Bankman-Fried injected $250 million in capital into the troubled crypto lender BlockFi with the option of acquiring it. He noted:

“When we think about the mining industry, they do play a little bit of role in the possible contagion spread, to the extent that there are miners that were collateralizing borrows with their mining rigs. There might come along a really compelling opportunity for us — I definitely don’t want to discount that possibility.”

The crypto winter being witnessed has thrown miners into distress, and Bankman-Fried’s move is aimed at helping them endure the bear market.

Crypto miners find themselves on the receiving end because they had been borrowing for the past two years to spur expansion plans. Per the announcement:

“As much as $4 billion of loans backed by crypto-mining equipment are coming under distress as some of the most-popular machines’ value has dropped by about 50% since last November, when crypto markets peaked.”

The crypto market has been bleeding based on various reasons like tightened macroeconomic factors and various misfortunes.

For instance, the interest rate in the United States recently reached a 28-year high based on the Federal Reserve’s intention to tame runaway inflation.

Moreover, the Ukraine invasion by Russia and the shocking collapse of Terra Network’s LUNA and UST has also affected the crypto market.

Meanwhile, FTX recently turned down bailing out troubled crypto lending firm Celsius Network after scrutinizing its finances.

FTX reached this conclusion after poking a “$2 billion hole” in Celsius’ balance sheet. According to the report, FTX also found out Celsius’ situation was difficult to tackle.

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Tagged : Bitcoin Mining / Crypto Exchange / Crypto Miners / Cryptocurrencies / FTX / Industry Expert / Sam Bankman-Fried

Tether Aims to Render More Transparency by Slashing Commercial Paper Holdings

by Blockchain NewsJuly 3, 2022

Based on continuous efforts to decrease its commercial paper portfolio for transparency purposes, Tether revealed that it would slash its holdings by $5 billion by the end of July.

In a statement, Tether Holdings, the issuer of USDT, the world’s largest stablecoin, pointed out:

“Currently, Tether has 8.4B of these holdings, of which 5B will expire on July 31. This will result in a significant reduction in commercial paper assets to a low of 3.5B, which is on track with Tether’s commitment to the community. The goal remains to bring the figure down to zero.”

Therefore, Tether’s long-term objective is to reduce commercial paper holdings to zero because it sees this as a stepping stone toward a heterogeneous portfolio. The report noted:

“This is part of a larger strategy to ensure that Tether has a diversified portfolio with limits to exposure on individual issuers or assets. It demonstrates a commitment by the company to reduce its commercial paper investments and validates the business, as part of its ongoing push towards an increased transparency for the stablecoin industry.”

The stablecoin sector has received heavy backlash following the shocking collapse of the algorithmic UST stablecoin in May.

Things started going haywire after UST on the Terra network experienced a de-pegging from its US Dollar benchmark.

As a result, different governments have put up guardrails in the stablecoin arena. For instance, the Japanese parliament passed a bill classifying stablecoins as digital money that must be connected to the nation’s currency, yen, or another legal tender.

The law was passed last month and stipulated that stablecoins would only be issued by licensed banks, registered money transfer agents, and trust companies to protect investors.

Therefore, Tether’s decision to slash its commercial paper holdings is meant to clear the air and position it for a better relationship with regulators moving forward.

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Tagged : COMMERCIAL PAPER PORTFOLIO / Cryptocurrencies / Stablecoin / Tether