Good for Cryptos: FDIC Says US Depositors Withdrew a Record $472 Billion

Audy Castañeda
-
0
<strong>Good for Cryptos: FDIC Says US Depositors Withdrew a Record $472 Billion</strong>

On Wednesday, the share prices of the 10 largest US banks by market capitalization fell at least 1 percentage point.

Cryptocurrencies could be enjoying a rise in price and adoption, as the latest report from Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. showed around half a trillion dollars in deposits withdrawn from US banks during the first three months of 2023, which caused the stock to plummet.

The investigation appeared to reignite concerns about the failures of Silicon Valley Bank, Signature Bank and First Republic, which were precipitated in large part by aggressive interest rate hikes implemented by the US Federal Reserve. On Wednesday, prices of shares of the 10 largest US banks by market capitalization fell at least 1 percentage point.

Unprecedented $472 Billion Bank Accounts Withdrawn

During Q1 2023, depositors withdrew a record $472 billion, the fourth straight quarter of declining deposit totals, and the highest quarterly withdrawal total since the FDIC began tracking statistics in 1984.

Silicon Valley Bank (SVB) was a savior of the crypto industry with over $200 billion in assets. It was noted for being one of the few US-based financial institutions serving cryptocurrency businesses.

Signature Bank’s Signet payment system enabled constant and instant crypto-to-crypto transfers for businesses. Signet is an essential component of the operation of many major exchanges, including Coinbase.

Financial filings and other records demonstrated that First Republic’s exposure to cryptocurrencies was negligible at best.

Stocks Drop Amid Retreats

The FDIC claims that the “primary driver” of the deposit flight was the one to the safety of accounts above the $250,000 level guaranteed by the insurer. As people diversified their holdings during the quarter, the total amount of insured deposits held by banks increased.

The S&P 500 banking index fell 2.6% after the report was released, hitting its lowest position in nearly two weeks, and on track for its biggest one-day percentage decline since early May. Comerica, Keycorp, and Citizens Financial posted the most percentage drops.

Even as the industry is “resilient,” FDIC Chairman Martin Gruenberg said the full impact of the turmoil might not be visible until the agency releases its second-quarter results. Gruenberg added that inflation, rising rates, as well as economic pressure, continue to pose threats to the industry, especially in areas like commercial real estate.

How Cryptocurrencies Benefit from Massive Bank Withdrawals

Large-scale bank withdrawals in the US can help cryptocurrencies in different ways. For starters, some of the money withdrawn may be put into digital assets like Bitcoin, which could increase demand for these currencies. This increase in interest can cause the value of cryptocurrencies to increase.

Second, the diversification of the financial system fostered by the flow of funds into cryptocurrencies reduces the need for central banks. Financial transactions are more private, secure, and under your control with this decentralization. By obviating the need for intermediaries, it also has the potential to reduce transaction costs and shorten settlement times.

In general, large-scale withdrawals from US financial institutions can boost the visibility, popular acceptance, and development of cryptocurrencies. However, the actual effect will depend on a number of variables, such as the number of withdrawals, the market mood, the regulatory climate, and the state of the cryptocurrency market as a whole.

By Audy Castaneda

Lido Finance: Negative Sentiment Dwarfs Double-Digit Growth

Audy Castañeda
-
0
<strong>Lido Finance: Negative Sentiment Dwarfs Double-Digit Growth</strong>

LDO’s rise in value has not enthused market participants. On-chain volume outperformed in gains, but GitHub contribution declined.

Lido Finance is a popular “liquid” staking service. Users can deposit tokens such as Ethereum, Polygon, Polkadot, and other proof-of-stake (PoS) tokens using the protocol to earn an attractive return on their stakes.

The LDO token is, like many DeFi tokens, a governance token. It allows its holders to vote and make proposals for any changes to the protocol. LDO holders were heavily influential in determining whether the platform should host Terra’s forked protocol after the original went under in May 2022.

Sentiment surrounding Lido Finance [LDO]’s native sample has been largely negative, according to Santiment’s on-chain data. Most recently, the weighted sentiment used to measure average investor sentiment was -0.44.

This happened despite LDO’s performance throughout May. In the last 30 days, the Lido Finance governance token price increased by 15.34%.

Enthusiasm Has Not Yet Peaked

While LDO has experienced significant price appreciation, with a strong performance in price and trading volume, several factors contributed to the prevailing negative sentiment.

A critical concern was the concentration of LDO tokens in the hands of a few large holders, raising questions about decentralization and governance. Such concerns could undermine investor confidence and contribute to negative sentiment about the project.

However, Lido’s social domain had a strong increase since May 31 and has maintained the increase thus far. Social Dominance shows the percentage of discussion around an asset compared to other cryptocurrencies in the top 100 by market capitalization.

Thus, the increase in the metric suggested that LDO was one of the most talked about tokens in the crypto community at press time. However, the growth in the Lido ecosystem has been broader than price action and social activity alone.

As a decentralized finance (DeFi) protocol that allows users to stake their earnings on staked ether [stETH] rewards, the increasing TVL means that investors have increased their appetite for depositing assets into the ecosystem.

Earnings for Incumbents, but Development Stepped Away

Together with the V2 update it also affected the increase in confidence, as well as the walk in STETH.

Despite the chain vote in favor of the update implementation, Lido Finance’s development activity decreased. At press time, the metric had dropped to its lowest state in 2023.

Typically, when development activity increases, the GitHub repositories are inferred to be active. But when it goes down like Lido was, at the time of this writing, it suggested less commitment to updates on the network.

The ratio of daily on-chain transaction volume in profit to loss was 4.08 so far. The metric is calculated as the daily volume on the chain in profits divided by losses.

A high ratio indicates that market participants have made more profits than losses. Regardless of the understanding shown towards LDOs, liquid staking continues to lead smart contract deposits in the DeFi space.

However, the token might need an increase in participation euphoria to impact the token in a positive way continually.

LDO Forecast

According to CryptoPredictions, Lido started in June 2023 at $2,009 and is expected to end the month at $1,780. During June, the expected LDO price maximum is $2,118 and the minimum is $1,440.

Following CryptoPredictions, The LDO price for today (04.06.2023) is forecast to be in the price range of $1,962 – $2,885. The Lido price is forecast to end today at $2,308.

By Audy Castaneda

Why I am buying Bitcoin in June?

Marina Meza
-
0
<strong>Why I am buying Bitcoin in June?</strong>

While not everyone is a fan of Bitcoin even its staunchest critics would be hard-pressed to deny its growing influence. One estimate from CryptoSlate predicts that the cryptocurrency industry will enjoy an adoption curve comparable to Online and cell phones, which in theory would give it 1.2 billion potential users by 2025. And, of course, Bitcoin was the first cryptocurrency of all and remains the most well-known.

However, there will naturally be hurdles on the road to widespread acceptance of cryptocurrencies. Even if the entire month of May was one of those bumps, Bitcoin true believers will not be dissuaded from preparing for a “moon in June” crypto comeback.

The Bitcoin Crash Was not Necessarily about Bitcoin

Some traders may be hesitant to buy Bitcoin in June because it had its first monthly decline of 2023 in May. Anyone harboring fantasies that Bitcoin would surpass $30,000 last month was no doubt disappointed as the token lost 4% of its value.

However, although the fallout from the FTX collapse may have lingered into May, the main culprit for Bitcoin’s price pullback was most likely the financial market’s basic malaise in the face of macro-level uncertainty. Between the looming deadline to negotiate the debt ceiling and recession anxiety based on 10 consecutive federal funds rate hikes since March of last year, investors had no shortage of excuses to dump their high-risk holdings, and cryptocurrencies certainly rank among the riskiest assets. classes.

Besides, as the old saying goes, trees don’t grow straight up to the sky. After going from $16,600 in early January to $29,000 at the end of April, it was not only understandable but actually healthy for Bitcoin to return 4% of its gains in one month.

Adoption will Be the Key to Bitcoin’s Future

There is no guarantee that Bitcoin will expand in June, but May’s drop means you can initiate a position or add to an existing one while Bitcoin takes a breather. In the long run, you may end up regretting not buying Bitcoin this summer, as the adoption curve could rise rapidly before 2023 is in the rearview mirror.

To look at what the future of cryptocurrencies in the U.S. may be, I invite you to look beyond our borders. In Laos, for example, the government openly supports a digital transformation strategy that includes blockchain. Meanwhile, a senior official at India’s central bank urged Indian bank managers to “embrace innovative technologies like AI and blockchain.”

Returning to the U.S., a March Blockchain News article quoted former White House Chief of Staff Mick Mulvaney as saying that he expects Congress to provide “meaningful blockchain/crypto legislation,” perhaps even sometime this year. I’ll stick to his knowledge as a member of the government, though I suspect the wheels of progress will continue to turn slowly on Capitol Hill.

At least U.S. cryptocurrency miners managed to avoid an appreciable proposed excise tax. The White House debt ceiling deal proposal had included a crypto tax, but that was not included in the remaining bill. So, for the time being, progress on U.S. regulation of cryptocurrencies may mean not making things worse for the market. That’s just as well since Bitcoin is a worldwide asset. Even if the U.S. delays accepting cryptocurrencies through 2023, other nations may pick up the slack and respect the blockchain.

By Marina Meza

Ethereum Price in the Bull Market? – $20,000 is Possible

Audy Castañeda
-
0
<strong>Ethereum Price in the Bull Market? – $20,000 is Possible</strong>

How high could the price of Ethereum go at the top of the bear market?

The Ethereum price could see a stronger rise again in the coming months. With 2024 coming up, the next bull market is most likely just around the corner. The $10,000 mark, which some analysts saw as early as 2021, should be reached any time soon.

The Ethereum price has seen more sideways movements in recent weeks. The year 2023 began with a strong increase. At the beginning of the year, the ETH rate was still below $1,200. After the rise in the first weeks of the new year, the price of ETH rose almost 50% to $1,700.

After a brief dip in early March, the Ethereum price rose sharply again and saw an advance above the $2,000 mark in April. After peaking at $2,100, the price has dipped back below $2,000 in recent weeks. The ETH price recently moved between $1,800 and $1,900.

How much can the price of ETH go up in the Bull Market?

The Ethereum course was able to see a significant rise again in 2023. However, the price is still well below the 2021 all-time high of $4,800. But after Bitcoin halving in April of next year, the new market bullish should start, in which the Ethereum price could also massively rally again.

In the last bull market, the ETH price was also able to rise very sharply. At the low point of the previous bear market, the price of Ethereum was still at $80. From there, the price was able to rise to $4,800, a 60-fold increase.

In bull markets, altcoins like Ethereum typically see larger percentage increases than the price of Bitcoin. However, Bitcoin and Ethereum price increases have also converged in recent years.

Can Ethereum Hit $20,000?

Based on this experience, the Ethereum price may still rise sharply in the coming months until the bull market. The low of the last few months was slightly below the $1,000 mark. Therefore, a rise of a factor of 10 to $10,000 in the next bull market is all but guaranteed.

It should be remembered that Ethereum’s price action over the past month has bound it into a range, oscillating between the support at $1,774 and the resistance at $1,924. The $1,924 resistance level was tested twice on May 7 and May 29, respectively, with the bears forcing a pullback in both cases.

A rise by a factor of 60 is very likely not to happen again. But a 20x rally from the bear market low to the next bull market all-time high definitely looks possible. An Ethereum price of $20,000 in the next bull market seems quite likely.

According to CryptoPredictions, Ethereum started in June 2023 at $1,503.635 and is predicted to finish the month at $1,739.273. During June, the maximum forecasted ETH price is $2,110.860 and the minimum price is $1,435.385.

Following the forecasts by CryptoPredictions, today (03.06.2023), ETH Price is expected today to be in the $1,617.908 – $2,379.276 price range. Ethereum is predicted to end today at $1,903.421.

By Audy Castaneda

Litecoin Price Strengthens a Few Weeks After Halving

Audy Castañeda
-
0
<strong>Litecoin Price Strengthens a Few Weeks After Halving</strong>

Excitement related to the August 2023 halving drives the price of Litecoin. The demand over the last few days is strengthened.

These first days of June start with strength for the price of Litecoin, one of the most stable digital currencies in the entire crypto market. The good performance of this asset value could be related to the enthusiasm that is generated around the halving that will occur in August this year.

During the last 7 days, the price of the coin presents an outstanding growth of +7.39%. Furthermore, its 24-hour growth is +1.40%. At the same time, its price is $93.68 per unit, according to data from CoinMarketCap.

Based on the above-mentioned, it can be said that investors are interested in a currency that is characterized by scarcity. In other words, similar to Bitcoin, this crypto has an emission cap of 84 million LTC (in BTC it is 21 million). Although the structure of the two currencies is almost identical, the amount is higher in LTC, which is why it bears the name “digital silver”.

Litecoin Price and its Relationship with the Halving

The proximity of the Litecoin halving could be related to the current momentum of its price. The halving is an automatic network event that halves the miners’ reward. In this way, for each mined block a number of coins is awarded, which is cut in half after the event.

This halving occurs in some coins that work through Proof-of-Work (PoW) or mining. In particular, these are coins with an issuance ceiling, that is, when that limit is reached, new coins will never be generated. This suggests that the cuts are a clear sign that the scarcity of an asset is increasing, which is boosting its price.

The current Litecoin price, below $100 per coin, could exceed levels of several thousand dollars in the long run, thanks to the intrinsic scarcity of its emission ceiling, as well as its accentuation due to halvings.

Litecoin Halving in Detail

On August 2this year, the third halving will take place on the Litecoin Blockchain. This event consists of cutting miner rewards by 50%. In the case of Litecoin, the payment for each valid block of transactions will decrease from 12.5 to 6.25 LTC.

When Litecoin came out in 2011, the reward was 50 LTC for each block mined. Now, after two halvings (2013 and 2018), the reward is 12.25 LTC, and from August it will be 6.25 LTC. Similar to the case of Bitcoin, the halving occurs every four years. Litecoin halving will occur at block 2,520,000.

Knowing how far the price of Litecoin will go is complex now. Volatility will increase and market speculation creates instability for any analysis or prediction. Analysts see the halving as a strong enough catalyst to break several resistances up to $150.

Similarly, for Coin Price Forecast analysts, the price target is $153 for December this year. Among the most bullish is Currency.com, which places a target of $500 per coin. However, the latter does not give a precise date.

Litecoin is an easy bet as it is available on most large exchanges. In addition, it can be easily sent to self-custody wallets, as its network transactions are remarkably low. Be that as it may, the halving of “digital silver” is at the gates, and the LTC price is already reacting positively.

By Audy Castaneda

“Spying on the Russian Federation” via Apple, a Big Super VPN Leak, and Other Cybersecurity Events

Audy Castañeda
-
0
<strong>“Spying on the Russian Federation” via Apple, a Big Super VPN Leak, and Other Cybersecurity Events</strong>

These are the four top news in the world of cybersecurity this past week.

Among the news of the week in terms of cybersecurity, the following stand out:

  • The FSB announced the hacking of thousands of Apple phones by US intelligence agencies.
  • Super VPN database with 360 million records leaked to the network.
  • The State Duma of the Russian Federation adopted a law on the confiscation of property from hackers.
  • RaidForums user data appeared on a new darknet platform.

FSB Says 1,000 Apple Phones Have Been Hacked by US Intelligence Agencies

The Federal Security Service of the Russian Federation (FSB) announced the exposure of a spying operation by US intelligence agencies, carried out by hacking thousands of Apple devices.

Among the victims are Russian subscribers, foreign diplomats based in the Russian Federation, the former Soviet republics, NATO countries, Israel, Syria, and China, as well as dozens of employees of the cybersecurity company Kaspersky Lab.

Based on the results of the investigation, the FSB concluded that there was “close cooperation” between Apple and Apple. NSA did not provide evidence that the corporation was involved in or knew about the spying campaign.

Apple denied the allegations in an interview with Reuters. The NSA declined to comment.

Super VPN Database with 360 Million Records Has Been Filtered

The popular free service Super VPN accidentally exposed more than 360 million records of its users. Researcher Jeremy Fowler drew attention to this. The 133 GB database contained email addresses, source IP addresses, geolocation, and records of the VPN servers used. Among the leaked information were also secret keys, unique identifiers of the users of the application, and their numbers.

In addition, the database included payment information and links to sites visited by users. The combined number of Super VPN downloads on Google Play and the App Store exceeds 100 million.

After receiving a notification from the researcher, the service owners reconfigured the database. Officially, they did not comment on the incident.

The State Duma of the Russian Federation adopted a law on the confiscation of property from hackers

On May 30, the State Duma of the Russian Federation adopted a law on the confiscation of property obtained as a result of hacker attacks and other crimes in the field of computer information.

Several experts in a comment to RBC suggested that, in theory, cryptocurrencies could also fall within the scope of the law, since at the legislative level they are properly equated.

RaidForums User Data Appears on New Darknet Platform

One of the administrators of the Exposed Darknet forum, going by the nickname Impotent, published the personal data of 478,000 users of the now-closed hacker platform RaidForums. This event was reported by Bleeping Computer.

The SQL file contains registration information from March 20, 2015, to September 24, 2020, including usernames, email addresses, encrypted passwords, and registration dates. Some of the information has been removed from the dump by an unknown party.

The journalists noted that the database was most likely already available to law enforcement after the acquisition and liquidation of RaidForums in April 2022. However, this information may be useful to information security researchers who profile intruders.

By Audy Castaneda

1...484485486...1,654Page 485 of 1,654