The Bank for International Settlements

In the days that immediately followed the collapse of the cryptocurrency firms FTX and Terraform Labs, there was an increase in the amount of trading activity that took place on significant exchanges, according to a report that was released by the Bank for International Settlements (BIS).

According to a report released by the BIS on February 20 and headlined “crypto shocks and retail losses,” after the announcement of the bankruptcy of Terra and FTX, the number of daily active users at some exchanges such as Coinbase and Binance “rose considerably.” This discovery was made in spite of the fact that the prices of Bitcoin (BTC), Ether (ETH), and a variety of other cryptocurrencies all fell in 2022. The bank provided the appearance that “customers wanted to weather the storm” by shifting their money into stablecoins and other tokens that were likely not looking as gloomy at the time. This was done in order to give the bank the impression that “customers sought to weather the storm.”

In contrast, the BIS reported that whales at the aforementioned exchanges “probably cashed out at the expense of smaller holders” by reducing their BTC stockpiles as retail investors bought cryptocurrency. This occurred as whales reduced their BTC stockpiles as retail investors bought cryptocurrency. This took place when whales sold off their BTC holdings while regular investors purchased bitcoin. The financial institution said that its experts had looked at the number of times bitcoin investing apps were downloaded. Assuming that each user bought $100 worth of bitcoin during the first month and each month thereafter, they found that approximately 75% of users had downloaded an app when the price of bitcoin was higher than $20,000. This was determined by assuming that each user bought $100 worth of bitcoin during the first month.

Source

Tagged : / / / / /

Cryptocurrency exchange Huobi Global is seeking a license in Hong Kong

The cryptocurrency exchange known as Huobi Global is now in the process of applying for a license in Hong Kong, which comes at a time when the Chinese special administrative region is mulling over potential licensing and regulatory changes that would enable it to work with retail clients.

The new regulatory framework, which stipulates that cryptocurrency exchanges must register with the Securities and Futures Commission (SFC) of Hong Kong, would make it possible for the exchange to extend its service offerings to include the city. According to a thread that was started on Twitter by Justin Sun, Huobi intends to launch a new exchange in Hong Kong that will be called Huobi Hong Kong and would cater mostly to high-net-worth people and institutions.

The Securities and Futures Commission (SFC) only just made the new Hong Kong licensing proposals available for public comment, and the new regulations are scheduled to take effect in June. As soon as suppliers of financial services heard about the impending adjustments, they began making preparations to participate in the upgraded system in December.

During an interview with Nikkei Asia, Sun said that Huobi may raise the number of employees working out of its Hong Kong office from 50 to 200 this year. He said that the move was prompted by Hong Kong’s favorable position on cryptocurrency as well as the prospect of retail sales.

In January, Huobi said that as part of the firm’s reorganization after Sun’s acquisition of the company in October, they would be laying off twenty percent of its workforce. The cryptocurrency exchange said in February that it would “strategic and product modifications” be the reason why its Huobi Cloud Wallet will be discontinued in May.

According to Nikkei Asia, Huobi is reportedly looking into the possibility of relocating its headquarters from Singapore to Hong Kong.

Huobi is also working to extend its service offerings in a number of other locations. It was revealed in January that the company is going to create a crypto-to-fiat debit card supported by Visa. Customers of Huobi who live in the European Economic Area will be able to use this card everywhere Visa is accepted. It is anticipated that you will be able to purchase that card around the second quarter of this year.

Source

Tagged : / / / /

CEO of Composable Finance Vigorously Refutes Allegations

The current chief executive officer of Composable Financial has vehemently rejected claims of legal improprieties made by Karel Kubat, who formerly served as the chief technical officer of the decentralized finance infrastructure platform.

In a tweet published on February 20, Kubat announced his resignation from the company while also making a number of allegations against his previous employer and the CEO of that business.

Kubat said that he would be leaving from his position because the business had not supplied him or the community with financial disclosures and because he did not have an overall picture of the company’s financial condition.

However, Kubat stated that he has a strong suspicion that CEO Omar Zaki, who has been legally barred from raising money for companies, was involved in the raising of Series A funds for the company in violation of a cease-and-desist mandate from the United States Securities and Exchange Commission. Kubat said he suspects that Zaki was involved in the raising of funds for the company in order to circumvent the legal prohibition.

In addition to this, Kubat added that he had a sneaking suspicion that Zaki’s involvement in the alleged rug-pulling effort known as Bribe was “far higher than he officially acknowledged.”

On February 20, in response to Kubat’s resignation, Zaki had an AMA (Ask Me Anything) session on Twitter Spaces. In this session, he vehemently disputed all of the allegations that had been made against him. He said that to the best of his knowledge, all of the company’s acts had been carried out in complete and total compliance with the law.

Zaki provided this answer in response to allegations that the firm lacked financial transparency: “Since the company is privately held, we are unable to make its financial information publicly available.”

On the other hand, he said that “we remain incredibly confident that we have adequate resources, staff, and the technology to really execute upon our goals, there is nothing here that gives me worry or should lead the public to be concerned.”

Source

Tagged : / / / /

Alex Gladstein Fights Government Corruption

Alex Gladstein, an advocate for Bitcoin as well as the chief strategy officer of the Human Rights Foundation, is of the opinion that the cryptocurrency helps mend democracies that are broken and combats government corruption by limiting the capacity of governments to influence the citizens of their respective countries. In other words, Bitcoin makes it more difficult for governments to manipulate the citizens of their respective countries. Bitcoin, in other words, makes it harder for governments to control the people living in their different nations by making it more difficult for them to do so.

During an interview that took place on the 20th of February, Gladstein expressed his belief that the decentralized nature of Bitcoin (BTC) may serve as a defense mechanism against tyranny and corruption. This conversation took place in the United States of America, which served as the location.

“I do feel that it is very simply related to fiat money, and I do think that Bitcoin answers this in some way,” he added. “I do think that Bitcoin answers this in some manner.” “In my opinion, there is a very clear connection between what you’re describing and fiat money,” you said. I have no doubt that Bitcoin will, in some fashion, figure out a method to overcome this obstacle. The author makes the claim that he thinks “I do feel that the use of fiat money is very simply tied to the decline of democracy in those countries,” and he is certain that this is the case.

Since 2007, Gladstein has been working at HRF, a charitable non-profit organization, in which capacity he has held the position of chief strategy officer. The Human Rights Foundation is referred to by its abbreviation, HRF. The mission of the organization is to advance and protect human rights all throughout the globe, with a particular emphasis on countries in which the population suffers “under authoritarian tyranny.”

It is stated in Gladstein’s profile that he often participates in events that are organized by Singularity University. During these occasions, he also gives speeches on topics such as the cryptocurrency Bitcoin and the development of future monetary systems.

Source

Tagged : / / / / / /

Real Vision CEO believes NFT will act similar to high-end property

Raoul Pal, CEO and co-founder of Real Vision, speculates that nonfungible tokens (NFTs) would behave similarly to “high-end property” in the old economy and will outperform Ether (ETH) during boom cycles in the cryptocurrency market.

The former executive at JPMorgan offered a rundown of what he felt most bullish about when it came to NFTs in a video that was uploaded to YouTube and published on February 20. The video lasted one hour and covered topics such as key use cases for the asset class, its underlying technology, and its potential performance in comparison to Ether.

According to Pal, in the same way that “high-end property” often outperforms the market when the “economy rebounds,” it is expected that the same will occur with specific NFTs during boom cycles in the cryptocurrency market.

“Therefore, I am able to transfer my ETH into a JPEG, which is an NFT. However, why? If you like, you can think of a [Crypto]Punk as a high-end property in London or New York or Hong Kong or wherever it is, and when the economy starts booming and people have more money, they tend to buy expensive high-end property. “Well, because much like high-end property and think of a [Crypto]Punk as a high-end property in London or New York or Hong Kong or wherever it is.

In addition to this, it has a history of outperforming the majority of the market. And I believe the same thing will take place in the ETH economy,” he went on to say.

He brought attention to the fact that major collections such as CryptoPunks and the Bored Ape Yacht Club (BAYC) have become status symbols in the cryptocurrency community. This is analogous to the fact that owning a luxury home, car, or item from a well-known brand provides access to exclusive clubs or what he referred to as “mini network-states.”

NFTs, he said, provide a “means of owning property in the ETH market.” He went on to say that humans are “stupid” and that we “love to socially signal things.” ETH is a cryptocurrency.

In retrospect, the former manager of a hedge fund stated that it was the year 2022 when non-fungible tokens (NFTs) first began to attract his attention because he began to “understand the power of what they are and what they can do.” This included the ability to transfer “value” using blockchains and automated smart contracts.

He also brought up the applications of NFTs in the resolution of contracts, saying that blockchain-based ledgers can offer verifiable transparency on what has been agreed upon between people, while smart contracts can, in essence, do away with the need for unnecessary third parties. He cited these applications as an example.

“Now, what’s interesting about the smart contract element of a networked financial transaction is the fact that it kind of allows for the settlement mechanism to be automated in code and resolves without the need for a third party, so you don’t need the courts, the lawyers, the notaries, and the accountants,”

Pal said that ever since he began investing in NFTs, he has placed around ten percent of his ETH holdings in “premium NFTs,” such as CryptoPunks and BAYC NFT.

As a result of the fact that such collections have been able to maintain a respectable level of value throughout the bad market, he hypothesized that they may possibly provide greater upside potential than negative danger. He is also of the opinion that there will be a rise in the price of ETH in the future.

“When measured in terms of ETH, the prices of CryptoPunks and Bored Apes have shown an astonishing lack of volatility over the last several days. Yes, they had a blow-off top, and once it subsided, they returned and have been trading about 65 ETH ever since. And the fact that they didn’t fall too much farther is something that fascinates me about it. During the large crypto market crash in June, they had a strong rise. Aside from that, though, they have just made a comeback and have maintained their position at 65 ETH. Therefore, whatever ETH does, they are just replicating it,” he said.

Source

Tagged : / / / /
Bitcoin (BTC) $ 26,590.12 0.14%
Ethereum (ETH) $ 1,594.78 0.05%
Litecoin (LTC) $ 64.71 0.07%
Bitcoin Cash (BCH) $ 207.37 0.53%