Coin360 Daily Dispatch | Crypto Market Updates & Highlights | November 21, 2023

Bitcoin's Resilience Amid Altcoin Decline and ETF Highs

Bitcoin's price surge to $37,000 has brought profitability for investors since 2017, with the Purpose Bitcoin ETF reaching a year-to-date high of 32,433 BTC. Altcoins, however, faced sharper declines amid Federal Reserve meeting anticipation, while Bitcoin retained its safe haven status amidst market volatility and uncertainty.

Ethereum Supply Dips, Price Rises with Whale Activity

Ethereum's exchange supply has hit a five-year low, indicating a trend where fewer people are selling and more are holding or staking ETH. This drop in exchange supply, from 14.5 million to 14.3 million ETH, suggests a potential price spike due to increased scarcity. 

Ethereum recently surpassed $2,000, partly driven by filings for Spot Ethereum ETFs in the US, with BlackRock's application notably boosting the price. Meanwhile, a prominent Ethereum whale reacted to DOJ news by purchasing 2,824 ETH (worth $5.53 million) from Binance and acquiring and staking 6 million BLUR from FalconX. 

Binance CEO Mulls Resignation, DOJ Settlement Looms

Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao (CZ) is reportedly considering stepping down amid a potential $4 billion settlement with the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ). According to WSJ, CZ plans to plead guilty to violating U.S. anti-money laundering requirements. The settlement relates to an investigation into Binance's compliance with anti-money laundering (AML) regulations and sanctions. 

The DOJ seeks $4 billion in penalties, with Binance moving $3.9 billion USDT, drawing community attention. This development follows Binance's efforts to enhance regulatory compliance and transparency in its operations. BNB rose to $270, then plummeted to around $240 after the news.

SEC's Legal Battle with Kraken Over Securities Trades

The SEC sued Kraken for unregistered securities trades and commingling $33B in customer funds. Kraken denies fraud or losses, arguing the SEC misclassifies their assets. Operations remain unaffected, and they vow to defend vigorously. Congressional members support Kraken, criticizing the SEC's approach and urging clearer regulatory frameworks.

Britannia Financial, Tether's Partner, Faces Legal Woes

Britannia Financial, Tether's banking partner, faces a lawsuit over a $1 billion deposit linked to Tether, involving the acquisition of a brokerage business. Meanwhile, the U.S. DOJ seized $9 million in Tether (USDT) connected to a "pig butchering" scam, following a collaborative investigation with OKX and Tether, which led to Tether freezing $225 million in USDT. 

Additionally, the DOJ is set to announce significant crypto enforcement actions, potentially linked to a multibillion-dollar settlement with Binance to prevent an FTX-like crash, and involving a $9 million Tether seizure from a scam operation. 

Apple's Crypto Payment Restrictions Spark Lawsuit

Apple faces a new class-action lawsuit for allegedly restricting cryptocurrencies as a payment method on their devices, potentially violating anti-trust laws. The suit claims that Apple's control over payment apps through the App Store leads to inflationary price hikes and anti-competitive agreements with peer-to-peer platforms.  

dWallet Labs Exposes InfStones' Security Vulnerability

dWallet Labs flagged a vulnerability affecting up to $1 billion in crypto assets hosted by InfStones validators. InfStones denied the claim, stating that the potential vulnerability only affected a small fraction of their live nodes, and that it has since been resolved. They also conducted internal reviews and launched a bug bounty program.  

Fantom's Quick Response to $550K Wallet Hack

Fantom Foundation suffered a $550,000 hot wallet hack, with a potential $170 million vulnerability. A security researcher found and reported the vulnerability, which was quickly mitigated. Fantom awarded the researcher $1.7 million. Despite recent hacks, the Fantom token has increased in value. The Fantom network enables decentralized applications and is compatible with Ethereum.  

Avalanche's Transaction Surge and Colony Lab's Investment

Avalanche's C-Chain recently hit a new high with 2.3 million daily transactions, primarily due to ASC-20 tokens, similar to Bitcoin Ordinals. These tokens, inscribed on the blockchain, have led to an average of 40+ transactions per second, peaking at 100. The average gas price was around 80 nAVAX, costing roughly $0.05 per transaction. 

Meanwhile, Colony Lab is investing $10 million in the Avalanche ecosystem, including buying 500,000 AVAX tokens and setting up a validator program. This investment aims to foster long-term growth, with rewards benefiting CLY token stakers. 

BONK Coin's Meteoric Rise on Solana Ecosystem

The BONK meme coin on Solana has surged by nearly 2,000% in the last month, but dropped by nearly 30% today. Though not being clarified, the rumors of a potential listing on Binance have been boosting its price. Solana's market performance has also been impressive, with the SOL token gaining significantly and the ecosystem receiving positive projections and endorsements.  

Aragon DAO Legal Move Against Founding Team

The Aragon DAO is pursuing legal action against its founding team for dissolving the governing body without community consultation. They allocated $300,000 to a Delaware-based firm to handle the lawsuit and negotiations, aiming to retrieve assets for former tokenholders and maintain transparency in financial transactions.  

PancakeSwap's Governance Influence Boost with veCAKE

PancakeSwap proposes launching vote-escrowed CAKE (veCAKE) to increase governance influence and liquidity. This would enable holders to vote on reward distribution, with initial phases covering BNB Chain, Ethereum, and Arbitrum. The proposal is currently receiving overwhelming support and voting ends tomorrow.  

Ethereum Layer 2 Blast: Investment and Criticisms

Ethereum Layer 2 Blast, with $20 million investment, offers native Layer 2 yield generation for ether and stablecoins. It has attracted over $30 million in bridged assets but faces criticism over its referral scheme and lack of initial withdrawals, with mainnet launch and full functionality not expected until February 2024.  

Circle's New Bridged USDC Standard for Expansion

Circle has introduced a new "bridged USDC standard" to simplify the launch of its stablecoin, USDC, on new networks. This two-phase process allows third-party developers to initially control the token contracts, with eventual seamless transition to official status backed by Circle's reserves.  

Bittrex Shutters U.S. Operations Amid Market Shifts

Bittrex, a once major U.S. cryptocurrency exchange, is shutting down after its U.S. branch declared bankruptcy earlier in the year following a significant market share decline. Users are urged to withdraw funds by December 4. The CEO of Bittrex Global has previously emphasized the company's commitment to offering a regulated digital asset platform outside the United States.  

Phoenix Group's Successful IPO Signals Mining Optimism

Phoenix Group, a Bitcoin mining firm, completed an IPO, raising $370M, surpassing projected amounts by 22 times. Demand exceeded expectations with retail oversubscription by 180 times. They will trade as PHX on ADX. Amid a surge in mining activity and revenue, the IPO reveals investor confidence in the Middle Eastern crypto economy.  

Top Altcoin Gainers and Losers

Gainers:

FTX Token FTT (+4.87%)

Tether Gold XAUT (+1.19%)

PAX Gold PAXG (+1.06%)

Losers:

Bittensor TAO (-23.05%)

Celestia TIA (-21.17%)

Arweave AR (-16.09%)