Category: Crypto

Since the late 1970s, small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) have leveraged private credit as a means of accessing capital when traditional banks were either unwilling or unable to meet their needs. Now, as the traditional banking sector becomes increasingly stringent in response to macroeconomic conditions, loans provided by non-bank institutions to businesses are helping to fill the gap—and the growth is palpable. In Europe, private debt funds extended nearly 200 loans in the final quarter of 2023 alone, with the share of transactions more than doubling from 27% in 2020…

In a stern announcement aimed at reinforcing financial integrity and improving compliance measures with international sanctions, OKX CEO Star Xu declared that any accounts on the OKX exchange found to be interacting with Tornado Cash would be terminated. The announcement comes in response to escalating concerns about using Tornado Cash, a decentralized mixing service that enables users to obfuscate the origin and destination of their cryptocurrency transactions. While Tornado Cash is popular among privacy-conscious users, it has also been exploited by malicious actors to launder stolen funds. Compliance crackdown Xu…

According to a Fox Business report on Aug. 7, a new advocacy group called “Crypto for Harris” has been launched to battle rival Donald Trump’s industry appeal. The group is planning a virtual town hall meeting next week to support the Harris campaign and promote fundraising initiatives. Fox’s Eleanor Terrett reported that those speaking will include crypto advocate Mark Cuban, SkyBridge Capital founder Anthony Scaramucci, and a handful of Democratic members of the House of Representatives. 🚨NEW from me: Democrats launch ‘Crypto for Harris’ campaign to counter Trump’s industry appeal…

Several representatives from major cryptocurrency firms reportedly attended a video call with United States lawmakers, officials from the Biden administration and Kamala Harris’ staff.  According to an Aug. 8 report from Yahoo Finance, industry leaders discussed how the Biden administration might “reset” its approach to crypto policy as President Joe Biden ends his term in January 2025 and through Harris’ campaign. Coinbase Global chief legal officer Paul Grewal, Kraken CEO David Ripley, Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse, and Circle CEO Jeremy Allaire reportedly attended the virtual event, initially reported as an in-person…

XRP has decoupled from the broader crypto market, outperforming all top assets in terms of daily gains. While the rest of the market struggles, XRP experienced a sharp price increase of nearly 20% in the past day, reaching $0.64 on Thursday before slightly retracing to $0.61. As a result of the continued uptrend, XRP has managed to post an impressive 42% in monthly gains. This bullish trend is backed by a certain group of whale wallets that have accumulated a significant stash of tokens, thereby clinching a new record. XRP’s…

Gaming and non-fungible token (NFT) blockchain Immutable announced that it’s retiring its NFT marketplace to focus on expanding its ecosystem through partnerships.  Immutable said they would wind down the marketplace’s operations on Aug. 13. According to the network, the marketplace was built to showcase available features using the Immutable software development kit (SDK). However, since its launch, the network said there are already projects that have been created with it and have grown. Immutable wrote: “As a company, rather than compete, we would prefer to support these marketplaces and see…

Periods of widespread decline in global markets are usually rare, happening during times of significant global stress, deleveraging, and increased geopolitical risk. On Monday, both equities and digital assets experienced sharp sell-offs as the unwinding of the yen-carry trade led to market deleveraging. US treasuries surged amid recession fears, and bitcoin saw a 32% drop from its all-time high, marking the most severe decline of the current cycle. According to Glassnode, this drawdown “precipitated a statistically significant capitulation amongst short-term holders.” August Hits Bitcoin Short-Term Holders Hardest Despite staging a…

Online brokerage platform Robinhood’s crypto transaction-based revenues increased 161% year-on-year to $81 million in the second quarter amid a rise in trading volume. The $21.5 billion in trading volume was a 137% increase from Q2, 2023, but a 40% fall from the Q1, 2024, the trading firm revealed in its Q2 financial statement on Aug. 7. Robinhood attributed this to a downward swing in monthly active users in Q2 as crypto prices fell. “When the crypto markets are hot there’s a huge immediate spike in monthly active user engagement metrics…

Nexera, a DeFi protocol, has been affected by a smart contract security breach that resulted in the theft of $1.5 million worth of NXRA tokens. Following the incident, the value of the protocol’s native token plummeted by over 40%. $1.5 Million Stolen and NXRA Token Plummets 43% The exploit was first reported on August 7 by Cyvers, a blockchain security firm, via a post on X that stated, “Our system has detected a suspicious transaction involving your proxy contract.” According to the post, an unidentified address managed to take control…

Bitcoin (BTC) circled $56,000 at the Aug. 7 Wall Street open as concerns emerged over a lack of support. BTC/USD 1-hour chart. Source: TradingView Bitcoin battles “death crosses,” thin liquidity Data from Cointelegraph Markets Pro and TradingView showed the BTC price rebound stalling, with BTC/USD flat versus the daily open. Still up by around $7,000 versus the six-month lows seen on Aug. 5, Bitcoin nonetheless continued to worry market observers amid an atmosphere of uncertainty. Analyzing order book conditions on exchanges, trading resource Material Indicators concluded that price could go…