Epic Games will Legally Complain against those Responsible for Fornite Token

Jenson Nunez
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Epic Games will Legally Complain against those Responsible for Fornite Token

The CEO of Epic Games, Tim Sweeney, expressed that Fornite does have any connection with any official token and accused those responsible for encouraging a scam focused on its game.

The distributor and developer of video games for PC, Epic Games, would make a legal complaint against the creators of a token funded in 2021 allegedly linked to its game called Fornite.

CEO of Epic Games Would Fight Against the Creators of Fornite Token

This information got confirmed by the CEO of Epic Games, Tim Sweeney, and highlighted through a message launched on his official Twitter that the entity will file a legal action to fight against those responsible for the token. Sweeney even reiterated that Fornite does not count on any official crypto asset.

Sweeney stated via Twitter that there is no Fornite crypto asset. According to him, Twitter accounts encouraging such a thing are a scam led by deceivers and criminals. Epic’s lawyers are already working on the case. Sweeney also pointed out that it’s a shame that the markets allow this activity.

Since Fortnite is one of the most prominent brands in the video game space nowadays, Sweeney highlighted that those behind said token could struggle with copyright and trademark issues since they use the images and the official name without authorization from Epic Games. This action would represent a problematic infringement since they mistakenly lead the interested parties to think that the digital asset shares a direct connection with the title.

Fornite Token creators responded that Sweeney’s statement quickly landed on those responsible for Fornite Token, who in response told the CEO of Epic Games that their project is simply an initiative backed up by video game enthusiasts.

Everything is Possible in the Crypto Space

Although the struggle regarding the legality of the creation of a token focused on Fornite may be currently active, the truth is that these activities are common within the crypto space, so any individual or group has the chance to create their asset and connect them to any brand.

There are cases where partner brands back up the communities behind these activities, but others desire to take advantage of brands to create their crypto asset and camouflage their scam.

A similar situation occurred with the token focused on The Squid Game (SQUID), which took advantage of the sparkling fame of the South Korean series broadcast by Netflix and raised the interest of a considerable number of investors, who overnight got deceived and faced the theft of their linked investments.

By: Jenson Nuñez

A Technical Analysis Indicates Where the Price of Ether Is Heading Next

Alexander Salazar
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A Technical Analysis Indicates Where the Price of Ether Is Heading Next

The lack of buying determination makes it impossible to determine whether the price has bottomed out, indicating that there might be more selling. The price must first break through the upper part to confirm the validity of the forecast.

While cryptocurrency prices remain locked within small sideways ranges, the lack of buying determination suggests that the bears are still looking for the bottom. The following technical analysis will help investors find out where the price of Ether (ETH) will head.

ETH is trading at around USD 1,802 and has accumulated a 1.6% gain over the last 24 hours. While its daily trading volume is above USD 36.84 billion, its market capitalization is about USD 579.95 billion, according to CoinGecko.

Even though the bears are putting pressure again, they have not yet caused havoc. However, a rapid increase in volatility may cause a lot of fear in the crypto market.

The Monthly Technical Analysis of the Price of Ether

The monthly ETH/USDT chart shows a scenario where the bottom of the correction seems to be near.

The price dropped to a relevant support zone of around USD 1,750, where strong bullish momentum had already started. That area concurs with the 61.8% Fibonacci, which usually serves as support during trend retracements.

Since there is no buying determination yet, it is impossible to confirm that the price has reached the bottom. On the contrary, it seems more likely there will be some more selling.

In the monthly time frame, the ground would be clear for USD 1,125 if the price broke the support at USD 1,725. However, closer support zones on lower time frames would make it entirely feasible to stop sales.

The Weekly RSI Is Close to an Oversold Zone

The weekly ETH/USDT chart shows that the price has remained locked in a relevant support zone. Meanwhile, the RSI indicates that it might soon reach an oversold level not seen since the bearish market of 2019.

There is still no buying determination to confirm that the price will resume the higher trend, but the selling space seems to be running out. A quick search for liquidity toward the large support zone around USD 1,200 might be enough.

There Might Be a Rebound from the Current Point

To conclude, the daily ETH/USDT chart shows that the price of Ethe remains locked in a descending wedge. In the technical analysis, that figure announces that there will possibly be a reversal.

That pattern formed over a relevant support zone, while the bullish divergence occurred on the RSI. For that reason, there is a high probability that the forecast will come to pass. However, it is only possible to confirm its validity when the price breaks through the upper part.

The price of Ether will remain at risk in the short term as long as that does not happen. If the price lost USD 1,722, it would signal that there will be bearish volatility soon.

By Alexander Salazar

The SEC Investigates the Binance Coin ICO for Allegedly Violating Securities Regulations

Alexander Salazar
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The SEC Investigates the Binance Coin ICO for Allegedly Violating Securities Regulations

The process reportedly focuses on whether Binance offered digital assets to investors to finance a company with the promise of future profit. The IRS and CFTC are also investigating Binance, as they suspect that the exchange allowed trading cryptocurrencies without any regulation.

US regulators scrutinize the initial coin offering (ICO) that fueled the launch of cryptocurrency exchange Binance in 2017. The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) is investigating the origins of Binance Coin (BNB) for alleged violations of securities regulations.

A previous unrelated investigation indicates that there was laundering of at least USD 2.35 billion in illicit funds on Binance between 2017 and 2021.

Nobody is sure what prompted the SEC to conduct this latest investigation. However, BNB occupies 5th place in the cryptocurrency ranking, with a market capitalization of USD 47.59 billion.

The SEC investigation reportedly focuses on whether digital assets qualify as currencies and whether Binance offered them with the promise of future profit.

The creation of BNB as an ERC-20 token occurred on the Ethereum network in July 2017 before moving to a separate Binance blockchain. The initial coin offering of 100 million BNB at 15 US cents per unit raised USD 15 million.

Global Regulators Are Scrutinizing the Binance Crypto Exchange

Binance might be facing multiple investigations in Washington, of which the SEC is taking dozens of ICO investigative actions.

The exchange stated they could not comment on their discussions with regulators on education, assistance, and requests for information. They said that they would comply with all the requirements established by the law.

A USD 5 million class-action lawsuit hit Binance in March, leading several investors to claim that the exchange had sold them unlicensed securities.

The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) also investigate Binance. They suspect that the exchange allowed US residents to trade cryptocurrencies without regulation through its platform.

Binance Became a Hub for Hackers, according to Reuters

Reuters recently released a report accusing Binance of processing at least USD 2.35 billion stemming from hacks, fraud, scams, and drug sales between 2017 and 2021. In addition, the news agency highlighted that Binance had weak KYC/AML protections during that period.

They also mentioned the Eterbase hack, as the North Korean hacker group Lazarus laundered much of the assets through Binance. Besides, Reuters also accused Binance of having ties to the Russian drug market Hydra.

According to Reuters, traders from the largest dark web drug market made and received crypto payments for USD 780 million through Binance.

The Finiko Ponzi scheme is another case that Reuters highlighted, as Binance allegedly received another USD 838 million.

However, Binance rejected the allegations of the news agency, saying that the report was an ill-informed opinion article. The exchange said they used outdated information from 2019 and unverified personal testimonies.

The report shows that the implementation of the KYC protocol stopped the use of Binance as a tool to process illicit funds. However, Reuters pointed out that at least USD 2.35 billion had already passed through the exchange from black markets, hacks, and other scams.

By Alexander Salazar

American Traders Plunged the Performance of Bitcoin by More than 30%

Jenson Nunez
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American Traders Plunged the Performance of Bitcoin by More than 30%

Arcane Research revealed that the crash in America is way bigger than in Europe and Asia. Among the elements that played a vital role in the decline, the lack of demand and the complex situation that the world economy is going through stand out.

A recent report revealed by Arcane Research, a blockchain data research entity, highlights that YTD (Year-To-Date)performance of bitcoin crumbled down from 4.22% to 1 from April to -32.55%.

The report also revealed that during European and Asian trading hours, bitcoin experienced uniform returns since April 1. This event shows that traders and investors currently living in America negatively impacted the performance of the leading digital asset in recent months.

This drop took effect due to various elements. One of them is the opinion that many huge capital investors have about a currency like bitcoin, which, according to them, represents one more risky asset and is only based on the speculations that they give to its cost to make a sale or purchase decision.

A Negative Reaction to FED Procedures

Another element that influenced the recent crack of bitcoin is the selling pressure. This selling pressure is a factor that goes along with risk and is a reaction to the FED’s measures to slow down the economy.

From May 30 to June 3, the S&P 500 index crumbled down to 1.20%, and this year it presents a decline registered at more than 12%. In comparison, bitcoin crashed 37.1% since the beginning of the year and 6.34% since last Monday, May 30; these figures show a steeper drop for the leading digital asset.

The fact that there is a visible lack of consolidation in its demand does not give hope to the Bitcoin price, so it is finding it hard to return to higher peaks in recent months. This situation has created an uncertain scenario among traders who fear this is a bear market.

Also, considering the complex global economic panorama, with extensive inflation worldwide and the probability of a contracting market, the price of the leading asset is still in red, and this position could take it to even lower costs.

Crypto Market Liquidation is a Need

The selloff of the top two cryptocurrencies, Bitcoin and Ether, got triggered by a much more comprehensive crash in stock markets. The decay just got worse with the Crashdown of the TerraUSD.

Brett Harrison, president of FTX US, mentioned that large institutional investors are also involved in the cryptocurrency market crash.

He expressed that there was a much comprehensive decay in risk assets such as stocks but that it also impacts the cost of crypto-assets. This situation takes effect as there is much more institutional money in the market than before.

By: Jenson Nuñez



Binance Denies a Report Accusing it of Allowing Hackers to Launder Money on its Network

Jenson Nunez
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Binance Denies a Report Accusing it of Allowing Hackers to Launder Money on its Network

The cryptocurrency exchange posted a response to the recent Reuters post accusing it of being a safe house for “hackers, scammers, and drug dealers.”

Binance, the most prominent exchange by trading volume, already filed a response to a recent report pointing at it as a facilitator of money laundering through its network for criminal actors.

Revealed by Reuters on Monday, the report expressed that Binance had already become a “hub for cybercriminals, scammers and even drug dealers with solid links to the Russia-based dark web market Hydra.

The article expressed that the exchange became a tool for channeling more than $2 billion in illicit assets between 2017 and 2021, reflecting on its flaws and weak security controls and anti-money laundering procedures. It also mentioned, among other things, that the platform gave the green light to the Lazarus hacker team, allegedly based in North Korea, to launder illicit activities achieved through hacking procedures.

Binance Denied Reuters Allegations

In response to the accusations revealed in the report, Binance launched a detailed blog post arguing against many arguments unveiled in the report. Among the statements, the company stated that the report was filled with lies and based on shady data. Along these lines, a spokesperson for the exchange expressed to Forkast that the report focuses its arguments on obsolete information.

Binance expressed they are fully aware of the latest woefully misinformed op-ed by Angus Berwick and said that the article relies on obsolete information from 2019 and unverified personal proof as a supportive base to consolidate a false narrative.

Likewise, Binance denied the fact that digital assets are the ideal scenario to make illicit activities like money laundering flourish, as the report points out, and clarified that the authors of the article do not count on enough Blockchain knowledge.

The entry also highlighted data from the analysis of the blockchain, Chainalysis, which ensures that only 0.15% of all operations achieved with digital assets in 2021 got connected with criminal activities; while the UN expressed that between 2% and 5% of fiat currency has direct ties to the criminal panorama.

The news agency, for its part, said it worked with Chainalysis and Crystal Blockchain, another chain analytics entity, to track its data while checking out court records and statements from law enforcement.

Security Experts Respond: It’s ‘Biased’

The response revealed on Binance’s blog also includes more than 50 pages of email logs between the exchange’s cybersecurity team and Reuters journalists. This information got revealed by the CEO of the platform, Changpeng Zhao, in a tweet in which he denies the accusations and said they only intend to create a scenario filled with fear and uncertainty.

Some of Binance’s security experts also discredited the information provided by the report. In an interview with CoinDesk, Matthew Price, a senior director of investigations at Binance who was the lead investigator for Hydra when working on the IRS criminal investigation, highlighted that the report is highly “biased” and that every exchange has exposure to the crypto markets.

Tigran Gambaryan, the exchange’s global intelligence chief who also worked side by side with the IRS cybercrime unit, explained that the report totally ignores the facts to follow an agenda. He told CoinDes that most of this history got completely ignored. He also stated that nobody can control deposits, people only control the next step they are about to make.

By: Jenson Nuñez

The Whales Accumulate their Holdings after Bitcoin Closes a Week in the Green

Alexander Salazar
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The Whales Accumulate their Holdings after Bitcoin Closes a Week in the Green

The Bitcoin whales transferred 50,300 BTC between exchanges, equivalent to 42.92% of the weekly total. Those long-term holders moved 34,897 BTC from the former platforms to unknown wallets and 31,979 BTC vice versa.

Bitcoin (BTC) closed a week with a positive return of 1.86% and a value of around USD 29,445. The whales have increased the accumulation of their holdings since the start of June.

The price of Bitcoin does not only relate to the movements of those long-term holders. External factors and actions by government agencies worldwide, like the US Federal Reserve (Fed), also affect it.

It is necessary to contextualize that activity to better dig into the status of the whales and the market as a whole. However, this is just a micro approach to one of the many factors that can influence the performance of BTC.

Daily Analysis of the Activity of the Bitcoin Whales

Over the last week, the Bitcoin whales moved 117,174 BTC, mainly through transfers between exchanges.

The predominant trend in the activity of those long-term holders was the transfer between exchanges. They moved 50,300 BTC between those platforms, equivalent to 42.92% of the weekly total.

The second-highest trend was accumulation, as 34,897 BTC went from exchanges to unknown wallets, representing 29.78% of the weekly total. The whales extracted liquidity from the market by 177% more than last week.

The introduction of liquidity into the market was the third-highest trend, representing 27.29% of the weekly total. The amount of Bitcoin that the whales moved from unknown wallets to exchanges dropped by 24.87%.

The Performance of Bitcoin over the Last Week

Bitcoin is trading at around USD 30,007.96 and has accumulated a 0.52% gain over the last 24 hours. During the week, the price remained primarily above USD 29,000, indicating it has found support between USD 28,000 and USD 32,000.

If the Bitcoin price broke the resistance of USD 32,000, the market trend would turn bullish. The cryptocurrency would thus become more attractive for miners to turn on their mining machines again.

It is important to remember that there is an adjustment in the Bitcoin mining difficulty every 2,016 blocks. It will increase if more miners connect, depending on the mining time and the hash rate on the network.

For that reason, the whales usually benefit from the market and extract their liquidity while the instability lasts.

Bitcoin correlates with other markets like the S&P 500 Index, which groups the 500 largest companies by market capitalization. The indicator shrank by 1.63% and showed volatility between 80 and 90 points regarding its minimum and maximum values.

Although Bitcoin faces difficulties, this positive weekly closure may represent the beginning of a change in the market trend. Bitcoin has lost 36.29% of its value from the January monthly high of USD 46,217.5.

Investors should follow the behavior of the traditional market and the movements of the Bitcoin whales. That would allow them to have a partial idea of the status of the market.

By Alexander Salazar

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