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Crypto Biz: Ripple’s expensive battle, Bittrex bankruptcy and a new blockchain network

This week’s Crypto Biz explores Arbitrum’s latest proposal, Ripple’s two-year battle with the SEC and a large corporations’ coalition to build blockchain solutions for institutional investors.

BTC price bounces at $25.8K lows amid warning over low whale interest

Bitcoin (BTC) sought to pass $27,000 on May 13 after a “scam wick” produced new two-month lows.

BTC/USD 1-day candle chart (Bitstamp). Source: TradingView

Traders: BTC price must retain $26,500

Data from Cointelegraph Markets Pro and TradingView followed BTC/USD as it recovered from a flash dip to $25,800 on Bitstamp.

The pair saw weakness after the start of the week’s final Wall Street trading session, briefly cutting through the key 100-day and 200-week moving averages (MAs) before rebounding.

BTC/USD 1-hour candle chart (Bitstamp) with 100-day, 200-week MA. Source: TradingView

As the weekend began, market participants were split over the likely course of events to come.

“Nice daily close. Has to hold 26.5K going forward. That’s the line in the sand for me,” Daan Crypto Trades told Twitter followers.

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MakerDAO publishes 5-phase roadmap featuring funding for open-source AI projects

DAI stablecoin proprietor MakerDAO offered up an AI-heavy roadmap for the future with plans for a new blockchain.

Bitcoin's dive under $27K liquidates $100M — So why aren't margin traders flipping bearish?

Bitcoin’s price (BTC) broke below its 55-day support at $27,000 on May 12. In result, the two-day, 7% correction to $26,155 caused $100 million worth of long BTC futures contracts to be liquidated.

However, Bitcoin margin and futures markets displayed strength during the down-move, fueling hope of a recovery toward $28,000.

Regulatory pressure, stronger U.S. dollar bite

Regulatory uncertainty in the United States significantly increased after Bitcoin miner Marathon Digital received yet another subpoena. The publicly traded mining company informed investors on May 10 that it received a subpoena from the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) concerning whether it may have violated federal securities laws, among other things, by using related-party transactions.

Furthermore, there’s the additional risk of the 627,522 Bitcoins held by the Grayscale GBTC Trust Fund, which has been trading at a steep discount for over a year while Grayscale’s holding company, Digital Currency Group (DCG), struggles with some failing subsidiaries. DCG’s crypto lending and trading firm, Genesis Capital, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in January.

Despite having separate corporate structures, Genesis Capital had "intercompany obligations" with the holding company DCG, so the consequences for the administration of the Grayscale funds are unknown. Additionally, the group reportedly owes Gemini's clients about $900 million, and the U.S. SEC charged Genesis and Gemini in January.

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What is Pepecoin and can it flip memecoins Dogecoin and Shiba Inu?

The market valuation of Pepecoin (PEPE) has dropped by 65% as of May 12, a week after its record high of $1.54 billion.

Profit-taking appears to be the primary reason behind the extreme price correction, after it rallied from almost nothing to as high as $0.00000372 after its launch on April 14, while emerging as the fastest-growing ERC-20 token in the crypto market's history.

PEPE market cap performance since launch. Source: CoinGecko

What is PEPE?

Pepecoin captures people's attention by mimicking features of memecoins, based on popular internet memes. The most well-known is Dogecoin (DOGE), which uses the famous Shiba Inu dog meme as its logo. 

Pepecoin is based on the "Pepe The Frog" meme, created by Matt Furie in his 2005 cartoon “Boys Club.” The humanoid frog went on to become a mainstream meme in the mid-2010s, with singers Katy Perry and Nicki Minaj using it in their tweets.

In 2021, BarnBridge founder Tyler Ward launched a low-resolution Pepecoin NFT collection that reaped over $60 million in sales on the OpenSea auction platform.

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'Don't short when it's dark green' — How to trade the 2024 Bitcoin halving

Bitcoin (BTC) is entering prime “buy the dip” territory as the clock ticks down to the 2024 block subsidy halving.

That is the conclusion of several well-known market participants this month, with Bitcoin just one year away from its “very interesting” next halving.

Bitcoin vs. the halving: Time to buy?

Bitcoin halving cycles are known to follow patterns when it comes to price activity in a given period.

These four-year “epochs” have so far contained a macro high and macro low for BTC price, with those events likewise four years apart from one another.

What’s more, in each cycle, the macro low has tended to occur a little over one year before the next halving. For longtime Bitcoin figures, including crypto media guru Pete Rizzo, there is thus little reason to believe that the future will be substantially different.

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Texas votes to add crypto into state’s bill of rights

Texas lawmakers vote to add digital currency to the state's Bill of Rights, granting individuals the right to use digital currencies like Bitcoin for trading.

Bitcoin enters $26K ‘bearadise’ as BTC price approaches 2-month lows

Bitcoin (BTC) neared two-month lows on May 12 amid fears that a “head-and-shoulders” pattern would put bears ahead.

BTC/USD 1-hour candle chart (Bitstamp). Source: TradingView

Analysis of BTC price: “Welcome to bearadise”

Data from Cointelegraph Markets Pro and TradingView showed BTC/USD reaching $26,100 on Bitstamp — its lowest since March 17.

Despite encouraging macroeconomic conditions for risk assets, Bitcoin failed to capitalize on the potential for gains as bid liquidity headed lower.

“Welcome to bearadise,” on-chain monitoring resource Material Indicators summarized.

A chart uploaded to Twitter the day before showed principal buy support now around $25,750, with BTC/USD eating liquidity higher overnight.

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Lufthansa, Eurowings, other travel industry players push forward with Web3

After a new travel-focused blockchain hit the scene, major players in the industry are beginning to pivot to integrate Web3 technology.

Big breath as Beacon Chain stops finalizing... and then recovers

The Ethereum mainnet briefly stopped finalizing transactions but recovered after 25 minutes.

Alameda’s $38B IRS bill, Do Kwon kicked in the assets, Milady frenzy: Asia Express

IRS wants $38 billion tax from Alameda

According to recent flings posted by the claims agent of bankrupt cryptocurrency exchange FTX, the U.S. Internal Revenue Service (IRS), is claiming a total of $44 billion from the exchange’s bankruptcy and related firms, including $38 billion against its sister quantitative trading firm Alameda Research. In one single claim, the IRS assessed $20.4 billion in unpaid partnership and payroll taxes against Alameda Research LLC.

Founded in Sept. 2017 by Sam Bankman-Fried and Tara Mac Aulay, with Caroline Ellison serving as CEO, Alameda was headquartered in Hong Kong and conducted up to $5 billion worth of trades per day at its peak. Hong Kong does not levy taxes on capital gains. However, being U.S. nationals, its founders and key executives are obligated to pay taxes on their worldwide income irrespective of where they reside and how many days they actually spend in the U.S. each year, as per the highly unusual U.S. taxation by citizenship regimen.

The partnership taxes assessed by the IRS suggests it believes the entity operated on a partnership regime, where, unlike corporations, profits are not taxed at the entity level but are instead “passed through” to its partners and subsequently taxed at the individual level.

If the IRS prevails, it could mean bad news for the creditors. According to the filing, the IRS is claiming the total unpaid taxes of $44 billion from FTX and related companies under Admin Priority. The IRS claims would take precedence over that of unsecured creditors, such as FTX’s one million users, during bankruptcy proceedings. Despite their best efforts, bankruptcy trustees and law firms have only managed to locate $7.3 billion in assets from FTX and related entities.

A purported $20.4 billion IRS claim against Alameda Research circulating this week. (Twitter)

Milady NFTs and token frenzy

On May 8, seeing the traction surrounding meme tokens, a group of self-organized developers created the Milady (LADYS) token on Ethereum (ETH), basing their design on the popular anime nonfungible tokens (NFT) collection of the same name. The token has no association with Milady Mixer nor Charlotte Fang, the creators of the Milady collection.

A purported $20.4 billion IRS claim against Alameda Research circulating this week. (Twitter)
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Alameda’s $38B IRS bill, Do Kwon kicked in the assets, Milady frenzy: Asia Express

IRS wants $38B in unpaid taxes from Alameda, Milady token surges 3,000%, restraining order for Arthur Hayes over 3AC “threatening” words.

Federal Reserve's FedNow will integrate with Metal Blockchain

The integration will allow users to instantly convert cash to stablecoin for use in DeFi protocols.

BlockGPT launches ‘chat to earn’ ecosystem for training AI

A new Web3 initiative aims to build a ChatGPT-style artificial intelligence system on the blockchain.

Researchers in Singapore design new ‘more efficient’ DAO scheme

Scientists at Singapore University of Social Sciences created a novel DAO voting/governance scheme after reviewing current methods.

How to use a crypto hardware wallet

To use a crypto hardware wallet, connect wallet to computer/mobile, enter PIN, follow instructions to send/receive crypto, then store safely offline for added security.

BTC price risks $27K loss as Bitcoin trend lines brew ‘bullish cross’

Bitcoin (BTC) headed toward $27,000 after the May 11 Wall Street open as bulls failed to show strength.

BTC/USD 1-hour candle chart (Bitstamp). Source: TradingView

BTC price “rolls over” after brief recovery

Data from Cointelegraph Markets Pro and TradingView followed BTC/USD as it risked a further loss of support.

After a modest recovery from local lows seen the day prior, the pair remained weak, even as new United States macro data offered bullish cues.

“Dump was retraced but then price quickly rolled over again,” popular trader Daan Crypto Trades summarized.

“We’re still trading at the range lows and until broken I think shorts aren’t great R:R. Bulls need to show strength by retaking the daily open for me to consider a possible reversal scenario.”


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Cryptocurrency trading addiction: What to look out for and how it is treated


An often overlooked aspect of the cryptocurrency market’s reputation for volatility is the effect sudden market changes can have on the mental health of traders and investors.

Addiction to day trading, or pathological trading, is already well-known among stocks and commodities traders and has been extensively documented by medical professionals. There are even rehab programs devoted to treating day-trading addiction.

With its possibility of “life-changing” money for those lucky or savvy enough to catch it, the crypto market has generated its fair share of trading addicts.

To get a better understanding of the mechanics of cryptocurrency trading addiction and how to recognize it, Magazine sat down with Tony Marini, senior specialist therapist at Castle Craig Rehab in Scotland, and Aaron Sternlicht, co-founder of New York-based private practice Family Addiction Specialist.

What is cryptocurrency trading addiction?

Sternlicht defines cryptocurrency trading addiction as the “persistent or recurrent pathological compulsion and obsession to engage in the behavior of investing in or trading cryptocurrencies despite negative consequences to personal and/or professional areas such as financial loss, disruption to relationships, career problems, mental health issues, and other such negative consequences.”


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Cryptocurrency trading addiction: What to look out for and how it is treated

The epic highs and lows of cryptocurrency trading make traders particularly prone to addictive trading behavior.

Terra Luna crash anniversary: Community reflects on the lessons learned

The Terra Luna crash anniversary sparks reflections on the importance of liquidity, transparency and user protection in the crypto industry.

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