Recently, the cryptocurrency exchange has had problems in Australia.

The Binance cryptocurrency exchange has become by far the largest cryptocurrency trading venue in almost 6 years. However, during its rapid rise, the company has often traded integrity for rapid growth. License withdrawals, lawsuits, and other critical attacks on the company are now piling up, suggesting a Binance crash soon.

In an article published about two weeks ago, details about the crypto exchange are revealed. Among other things, these were payments from the terrorist organization Hamas, the then CCO Samuel Lim is said to have supported or at least allowed these processes to take place.

These reports were just the culmination of a history of dubious business practices that have come to light on the crypto exchange. A major factor in Binance’s skepticism is the fact that the company appears to have no official physical headquarters in any country in the world.

What are the Latest Crypto Exchange Concerns?

Recently, the cryptocurrency exchange has been having trouble in Australia. The Australian regulator ASIC requested the suspension of the derivatives license for Binance Down Under. The platform must stop trading derivatives before April 21. However, it is still possible to trade cash.

Information revealed by Bloomberg adds to Binance’s problems. As reported on April 5, the Virtual Assets Regulatory Authority (VARA), the entity that oversees cryptocurrency activities in Dubai, has asked Binance to provide more information on its trading requirements, in its efforts to tighten regulatory controls in the emirate.

Additionally, the US Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) recently filed a lawsuit against CEO Chanpeng Zhao (CZ). Especially in Western countries, which are still the most important places for the international financial market, Binance is increasingly getting into trouble.

The recent bankruptcies of Silvergate and Signature Bank left Binance.US without banking services, relying on intermediary banks to store funds on its behalf, according to the Wall Street Journal, citing “people familiar with the matter.”

Consequently, as informed by the WSJ, Binance.US clients have been affected by the lack of a direct bank. In a recent status update, the exchange said it was “transitioning to new banking and payment service providers over the next few weeks,” adding that some USD deposit services would be temporarily affected during the transition.

Will Binance Fall in the Next Months?

Based on the abovementioned, the impacts for Binance are getting closer, and the bears or harsh critics of the platform expect that the exchange could suffer a fate similar to that of FTX in the coming months.

It is worth mentioning, though, that Binance is by far the largest exchange on the market, and probably has significantly larger financial reserves than FTX. It could well be that Binance continues to struggle with license withdrawals and has to survive various lawsuits. Despite this, it could still work without a hitch.

The advice to investors is to avoid, by all means, leaving large sums of cryptocurrency or FIAT money on Binance. It is always best to use one’s own wallet (“Not your keys, not your coins!”). Whether to continue using Binance to buy and trade is up to each investor.

By Audy Castaneda

This Friday, through a statement, the closure of the payment registration process that Mt. Gox will carry out for the month of October was announced.

October looks like the tentative date when Mt. Gox will make pending payments to defrauded creditors from nearly a decade ago. However, a new delay is expected, as is usual in this situation that affects dozens of pioneer investors in the crypto market.

The statement considers that all forms of reimbursement (base, intermediate, and early lump-sum repayments) will be made until the last day of October 2023. They add that, with the permission of the Tokyo District Court, the date could be extended. The latter could mean a new episode of uncertainty for people waiting for the return of their funds.

Mt. Gox to Make Pending Payments to Its Users Fourteen Years Later

Now that Mt. Gox will make pending payments to its defrauded customers in 2014, the memories of that event are very vivid. At the end of 2022, the world’s second-largest centralized trading platform, FTX, went bankrupt. Previously, dozens of small and medium-sized exchanges had shut down in the middle of the crypto winter.

Such a scenario affects other large platforms equally, due to the mistrust of regulators. The US SEC and similar agencies in other countries are increasing pressure on heavyweight platforms such as Coinbase and Binance, which could lead to the bankruptcy of the companies behind those exchanges.

Nearly a decade ago, the exchange that is now set to return funds to its users suffered a massive hack. Between 650,000 and 850,000 bitcoins were stolen by hackers, which remains the biggest theft ever in that industry. Part of these funds were recovered by the authorities, and they will be directed toward the payment to users.

As a result, after years of controversy, delays, and pressure, Mt. Gox will make any remaining payments to registered users. The latter includes the clarification of benefits and type of payment.

Follow-up Steps

The return process will be carried out by the Rehabilitation Trustee. who will carry out the “necessary preparations” so that the Mt. Gox payments are operated satisfactorily. Such preparations include confirmation of selections for payment, as well as the exchange of information with banks. The latter includes contact with fund transfer providers, exchanges, and other payment-related platforms.

It should not be forgotten that the funds recovered from this breach remained in limbo for years. It was not until 2018 that a court in Japan approved the compensation plan.

Since then, delays and deadlocks have been the common denominator of this process. Judging by the recent statement, everything indicates that the slowness and obstacles will continue after the date set to close the refunds.

Either way, the payments to be made by Mt. Gox are closer than ever. It should be noted that the price of BTC at the time of the looting of the exchange was $700 per coin. Currently, the value of the coin increased by approximately 4,000%.

By Audy Castaneda

Daily active users and FTM transactions decreased. On-chain performance wasn’t up to par; however, market indicators were slightly bullish.

Fantom is a platform created with the aim of providing a fast and cheap infrastructure to developers of decentralized applications. To do this, it uses a technology called DAG that is more efficient than the Blockchain. Its native token is FTM, and it can be purchased on the main platforms such as Binance or KuCoin, among others.

Fantom [FTM] recently reached a new milestone, having more than 50 million unique addresses on the network. This is a commendable achievement, as year-over-year growth exceeded 1,700%.

Fantom tweeted that “The number of active addresses on @FantomFDN has reached over 50M in total, 1758.28% in YoY. More and more big things are coming. 100M is coming soon.”

But… There Is a Catch

While the growth in unique addresses seemed very promising for the Blockchain, the same was not true for the number of daily active users. Token Terminal’s data revealed that FTM’s daily active users registered a decrease in the last 30 days.

A similar trend was also seen with the network’s successful transactions, which also fell. Considering the current situation, it is worth asking if a higher number of unique addresses will be enough for Fantom to maintain its health in the second quarter of 2023.

Assessing Fantom’s Performance

Evaluating Fantom’s on-chain performance, some factors were found that were not in favor of the Blockchain. For example, FTM development has plummeted in the last 30 days, which is a red signal for a Blockchain. To make matters worse, negative sentiments around FTM have peaked, suggesting lower investor confidence in the network.

Will the Q1 Winner Perform in Q2?

Fantom Insider noted in a tweet posted on April 6, 2023, that FTM ranked third on the list of cryptocurrencies by the percentage increase in price during the first quarter of 2023:

“Check out the Ranking Blockchain by Percentage Increase in Price in Q1 2023 … @FantomFDN is growing well with a growth rate of up to 110.62%. The market is pumping! What price do you expect Fantom to hit next quarter?”

Growth appears to have stopped. The declining momentum can be attributed to the current market conditions, in which most cryptocurrencies are struggling to push their prices higher.

As noted by CoinMarketCap, the FTM price has risen just over 1% over the past seven days. Most recently, it was trading at $0.459 with a market capitalization of more than $1.2 billion.

The Santiment data revealed that some of the metrics suggested the possibility of a downtrend in the coming days. However, Fantom’s daily chart showed signs of recovery. The Chaikin Money Flow (CMF) posted a rally, which was a development in favor of buyers.

Finally, the exponential moving average ribbon showed a bullish crossover, as the 20-day EMA inverted the 55-day EMA. FTM’s Money Flow Index (MFI) was also unsettled above the neutral mark, giving hope for a price hike in the coming days.

By Audy Castaneda