SEC Warns FTX Against Paying in Stablecoins - OKX now fully licensed in Singapore
Top Crypto Market Headlines: ?
by?Chadi El Adnani, Head of Research
Weekly Insights Report:
OKX's Singapore branch has been granted a Major Payment Institution (MPI) license by the city-state's central bank, allowing it to offer digital payment token services and cross-border money transfers, including crypto transactions. The announcement on Monday also revealed that Gracie Lin, a former official with the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS), has been appointed as CEO of OKX Singapore, where she will lead the development of new products and services for customers in Singapore. ?
The U.S. SEC may complicate the approval of FTX's bankruptcy plan, as indicated in a court filing on Friday. The SEC has expressed potential objections to any distributions of crypto assets to creditors. Earlier this year, the FTX bankruptcy estate proposed a plan to return 118% of their claims in cash to 98% of creditors within 60 days of court approval. However, the SEC raised concerns that a previous filing defined “cash” to include U.S. dollar-pegged stablecoins. The SEC's filing on Friday emphasized that while FTX Debtors are exploring various distribution options, including potentially using stablecoins, the SEC reserves the right to challenge any transactions involving crypto assets under federal securities laws. Additionally, the SEC noted that the FTX Debtors have yet to identify the distribution agent for the proposed stablecoin transactions. ?
Telegram CEO Pavel Durov has been indicted by a French court on charges related to facilitating illegal activities on the messaging platform, including the distribution of child pornography and drug trafficking. Durov is required to remain in France under judicial supervision and must pay a 5 million euro deposit. ?
MakerDAO has rebranded as "Sky" and will launch a new stablecoin, USDS, and a governance token, SKY, on September 18, signaling a significant shift in its operations. The rebranding also introduces a new user interface designed to make the platform more accessible and scalable, with the addition of a metaDAO ecosystem called "Sky Stars" for decentralized project governance. While the existing DAI and MKR tokens will continue to be supported, users will have the option to voluntarily upgrade to the new tokens. ? Crypto.com?has partnered with Standard Chartered to expand access to multiple fiat currencies, including USD, euros, and dirhams, through a new retail services business managed from its regional hub in Dubai. Serving 90 countries, this collaboration aligns with the UAE's goals for economic diversification and represents a major milestone in?Crypto.com's global expansion strategy. ?
The total market capitalization of stablecoins (excluding algorithmic stablecoins) has reached an all-time high of $168.1 billion, surpassing the previous peak from March 2022 and marking a $40 billion increase from the October 2022 lows. Analysts view this growth as a sign of increasing confidence and interest from institutional investors. ? The Threshold Bitcoin DeFi protocol has proposed a merger with WBTC to improve security and stability in response to concerns over WBTC's new custodial arrangements involving Justin Sun's BiT Global. ?
On a weekly basis, Bitcoin is down by 10.7%, and Ethereum has declined by 11.6%.
Token of The Week:?Ethereum (ETH)
ETH is a giant out of the box in terms of liquidity on centralised crypto exchanges. Since the start of the year, daily volumes have ranged between $2 billion and $6 billion, even reaching $10 billion in early March. The average cumulative 50 bps market depth is ~$45 million on the main CEXs. ETH shares these characteristics only with Bitcoin (BTC) and the most liquid financial instruments in TradFi, such as certain ETFs (S&P 500, for example). ?
ETH, which was valued at less than $1,000 in June 2022, ended the year at around $1,200 amidst the FTX implosion. However, 2023 witnessed a significant rebound, with ETH doubling in value to close the year at around $2,300. In 2024, the market experienced a month of January marked by some confusion about the direction of the crypto markets following the validation of BTC spot ETFs. Despite this confusion, ETH surged and broke the symbolic $4,000 barrier at the beginning of March. It came close a second time in May following rumors of the validation of Ether spot ETFs. Currently, ETH is trading at around 3300 dollars, with a performance of 45% in 2024. ?
We highlight the almost perfect correlation between ETH and BTC's performance throughout the year, demonstrating that investors still treat these two assets similarly despite their different fundamentals. This perception seems to have been consolidated with the validation of spot ETFs in 2024 and the entry of institutional investors en masse [...] ?
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Read the full analysis here:?https://en.thebigwhale.io/article-en/ethereum-eth-what-lies-ahead-for-the-protocol-and-its-token
? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? We just finished mapping the entire crypto ecosystem ??
? ? ? ? ? ?? ? ? ? ? 500+ projects/companies/DAOs/funds.. listed!
A total of 4 high-level categories: Blockchain Infrastructure; Blockchain Applications; Digital Currencies & On-chain Assets; Institutional "TradFi-like" Services, divided into sub-categories (e.g., Blockchain Infrastructure > Blockchain Services) and further down into sub-sub-categories (e.g., Blockchain Applications > DeFi > Decentralized Exchanges) ?
Download the full 28 pages mapping here:?https://sunzulab.com/publicationstype/the-complete-web3-ecosystem-mapping/
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The Week Ahead: ?
Tuesday September 03 2024
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Thursday September 05 2024
Friday September 06 2024
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