Crypto²

The SEC appeared likely to appeal the overall case.

key takes
•A federal judge imposed a $125 million fine on Ripple after finding last year that its institutional sales of XRP violated federal securities laws.
The judge reiterated her view that Ripple's programmatic sales of XRP to retail clients through exchanges did not violate federal securities laws.

•A federal judge ordered Ripple to pay $125 million in civil penalties and imposed an injunction against future securities law violations on Wednesday.

District Judge Analisa Torres, of the Southern District of New York, imposed the fine after finding that 1,278 institutional sale transactions by Ripple violated securities law, leading to the fine. The $125.035 million fine is well below the $1 billion in disgorgement and prejudgment interest and $900 million in civil penalties the SEC sought.

Wednesday's order on remedies follows the judge's July 2023 ruling in the case itself, finding that Ripple violated federal securities laws through its direct sale of XRP to institutional clients, though she also ruled that Ripple's programmatic sales of XRP to retail clients through exchanges did not violate any securities laws.

The SEC tried unsuccessfully to appeal that portion of the ruling while the case was ongoing.

Judge Torres also banned Ripple from future violations of federal securities laws on Wednesday, saying that while she isn't making a judgement that Ripple has violated any laws after the SEC filed its lawsuit, the company may well "cross the line" in a section referring to Ripple's "on demand liquidity" offerings.

"Rather, the Court finds that Ripple’s willingness to push the boundaries of the Order evinces a likelihood that it will eventually (if it has not already) cross the line," she said. "On balance, the Court finds that there is a reasonable probability of future violations, meriting the issuance of an injunction."
The injunction document requires Ripple to file a registration statement if it intends to sell any.

The SEC is likely to appeal the July 2023 ruling now that the judge has imposed a sentence, after the same judge denied the SEC's motion for an interlocutory appeal last year.
The SEC and Ripple settled charges tied to CEO Brad Garlinghouse and other executives after that interlocutory appeal was denied.

Just when I thought the market couldn't get any weirder. The afternoon session was a bit of a surprise. I see you PPT. Jp…kinda

Some Raw Data: • VIX spiked to 65.73, now sitting at 34.11 • Major indices still down over 2% • GME showing resilience (I thought they would use this to push it down and attempt to keep it down) • Yen carry trade unwind still in play • Fitch downgraded US credit rating • Trading volume 30-45% above 20-day average

The big picture from my perspective:

Global markets are more connected than ever. A hiccup in Japan is giving Wall Street indigestion.

The quick "recovery" smells SUPER fishy. Volume patterns suggest this might be a dead cat bounce. 3.Options market is going nuts. Bigg money is either hedging hard and scared as hell or betting on more chaos and about to capitalize on it.

Fitch's downgrade could have long term ripple effects on global perception of US debt. I mean, it’s absurd to the point of not even having to say it’s absurd.

What to Watch (this sh*t matters): Correlation between asset classes. if everything starts moving together, buckle up.

Credit default swap prices. These were the canaries in the 2008 coal mine.

Interbank lending rates as udden spikes could mean the big boys are getting real nervous.

FTD pile ups.

*Though we know they can fck around with much of these, eventually they trip and get run over. ‘08 is a testament to that but not really because they made off with it.

My personal speculation: What has my alarm bells ringing is this "recovery." The speed is unusual, but I won’t say it’s totally unprecedented. We saw similar whiplash in '87 and '08, but this one's got its own unique flavor.

The VIX drop from 65 to 33 in hours is pretty crazy. In past crashes, fear didn't evaporate this fast. I take it as signaling algorithmic trading amplifying moves, big players stepping in to calm markets, or genuine sentiment shift (least likely, in my opinion. Extremely unlikely from my point of view we all know the garbage dump we’re in)

Comparing to previous crashes, the sector divergence is notablee. Energy and Financials taking big hits while Tech holds up better looks like what we saw in 2000 and 08. But the Yen factor adds a new flavor.

True crashes often have false recoveries. Dead cat bounces or smoking mirrors as big players try to scramble and control general sentiment while making bank . The 29 crash had multiple relief rallies before the bottom fell out. 2008 saw several dead cat bounces.

The unprecedented part the speed and global synchronization. Information flows so muc faster now, and algorithms react in literal microseconds. This could make for sharper moves both up and down.

Keep an eye on central banks. Their response (or lack thereof) to this volatility could be the difference between a hiccup and a heart attack.

Bottom Line is that we're in uncharted waters. We have been ever since we bought into this play. The ingredients for a major correction are there, but so are mechanisms for rapid “recovery” and they’ll try to use that narrative.

Keep your eyes peeled, trust your gut, and remember that inn chaos, there's opportunity. Just make sure you know what you're doing before you jump.

This isn't financial advice, again it's just connecting more dots than my first post as we gain more data.

The games afoot, and it's far from over. The next few days/weeks look interesting as hell.

Power to the players forever

The bitcoin price is staring at the death cross, a pattern that trapped bears on the wrong side of the market last September.
BTC's near-term prospects are closely tied to the health of the U.S. economy and volatility in the Japanese yen.
Some indicators are inherently lagging and offer limited predictive power, yet they consistently make headlines in traditional and crypto markets, often resulting in unnecessary panic among inexperienced investors.

One such example is the bitcoin (BTC) death cross, which tends to spark heightened fear and impulsive reactions on social media despite its poor record of accurately predicting future price trends. So get ready, because one seems to be on the way.

A death cross occurs when the 50-day simple moving average (SMA) of an asset's market price falls below the 200-day SMA. Right now, the bitcoin price's 50-day SMA is at $62,332 and falling, indicating a potential crossover with the 200-day SMA at $61,605.

The impending crossover indicates that short-term momentum, represented by the 50-day SMA, is underperforming the long-term average. This development is widely interpreted as a bearish signal and leads to catastrophizing – a cognitive distortion that prompts inexperienced traders to jump to the worst possible conclusion, often with limited information and understanding. Overreaction is typical, especially when sentiment is already sour, as in the BTC market. The cryptocurrency has dropped over 20% to $55,000 in one week, according to CoinDesk data.

In reality, the chart pattern only shows the nature of the price action over the recent 50 days. It doesn't guarantee future moves will follow in the same direction.

The previous death cross confirmed on Sept. 12, 2023, was a major bear trap. BTC bottomed out at $24,900 on the same day and never looked back, eventually reaching new record highs above $70,000 in March this year. Investors who'd positioned for further declines were caught out.

The previous nine death crosses have a mixed record, with only five presaging prolonged downtrends, as CoinDesk discussed last year.
To sum up, the death cross is unreliable as a standalone indicator. Bitcoin's near-term prospects largely depend on the U.S. economic data and the volatility in the Japanese yen. Continued demand for the yen in the foreign exchange markets may further dent carry trades and keep risk assets, including BTC, under pressure
BTC's daily chart (TradingView)

The bitcoin market has recently gone through weeks marked by fear and uncertainty, with a notable drop in prices. Amid this turbulence, giants like Binance and other savvy investors are betting on a promising future for bitcoin. They have taken advantage of the situation to strengthen their BTC reserves. Their strategic moves indicate a long-term optimistic outlook for the leading crypto

Strategic accumulations during a downturn
In recent weeks, the bitcoin market has experienced volatility marked by panic selling. This situation was exacerbated by the liquidation of a significant stock of bitcoins by German authorities and the repayment of Mt. Gox debts. In this climate of uncertainty, Binance took a direction opposite to the general panic. Instead of selling, the crypto exchange increased its reserves by 41,000 BTC, bringing its total to over 620,000 BTC.

At the same time, other exchanges such as Bitfinex and Upbit also increased their stocks, adding 13,000 and 5,000 BTC respectively. Outside of these platforms, whales, these large bitcoin holders, also took advantage of the price drop to accumulate more BTC. Ki Young Ju, founder of CryptoQuant, revealed that these holders acquired 85,000 BTC over the last 30 days at an average price of $57,000.

Analysis and outlook for the bitcoin market
The increase in bitcoin reserves by crypto exchanges and whales shows growing support for the crypto asset even during periods of volatility. These strategic moves could very well herald the beginning of the longest bull run in bitcoin’s history, according to some CryptoQuant experts.

Despite significant sales by the German government and liquidations related to Mt. Gox, bitcoin has rebounded, reaching $64,000 at the time of writing. Some experts even predict that the crypto asset could reach a new all-time high by the end of the month.

As the number of wallets holding at least 10 BTC continues to increase, investors might witness a significant market transformation. The coming weeks will be crucial to assess if this accumulation phase marks the beginning of a renewed period of prosperity. Investors must nevertheless remain cautious and monitor new developments to navigate effectively in this constantly evolving financial landscape.

All stablecoins are equal, but some stablecoins are more equal than others – Basel Committee.

Amended Crypto Asset Standard gives preferential treatment to permissioned stablecoins
Many in the crypto community have criticized the amendments for favoring banks
In recent months, regulatory authorities have expressed their position regarding various crypto assets. For instance, just this month, the CFTC declared that ETH, BTC and 80% of cryptocurrencies are not securities, although SEC considers the opposite.

Simply put, a sustained discussion is widely shaping the cryptocurrency space right now.

Another such development is the new ruling by the Basel committee, one giving permissioned stablecoins preferential treatment in the amended cryptocurrency asset standards.

Basel Committee’s amended Crypto Standards
The Basel Committee, the agency that deals with setting standards for bank regulations, has released the amended version of its crypto assets standards. Based on the Committee’s conclusion, permissioned stablecoins such as JPM Coin will receive classification under Group 1b.
The classification regarding Group 1b states that,

“subject to capital requirements based on the risk weights of underlying exposures as set out in the existing Basel Framework.”

However, other stablecoins such as Tether’s USDT and USDC are now classified under Group 2. They are thus subject to conservative capital treatment, which limits the exposure traditional financial institutions such as banks can have to them.

Simply put, the classification implies banks will have strict restrictions on their exposure to these assets.
Crypto community’s reaction
In light of the recent ruling and classification, the Basel Committee has received massive backlash from the crypto community. Various stakeholders have argued that the BIS is trying to kill tokenized cash markets while helping traditional banks.

Founder of Zero Knowledge, Austin Campbell is one of them. On his X page, he criticized the move, stating,

“The fact that @BIS_org is trying to rig the tokenized cash market for banks should be unsurprising, given that the literal first word B in BIS stands for is Bank. I said on @intangiblecoins podcast that private bank chains are a bridge to nowhere, and this sort of thing proves that I am correct – trying to win by rigging the game is what you expect when you cannot win by competing fairly.”

A wave of crypto regulations
In recent months, crypto regulations across the globe have become a norm. For starters, the European Union introduced MICA, a list of regulations that considerably impacted Tether’s USDT.
Additionally, as reported by AMBCrypto, Russia is now pushing a new mining bill that will affect individuals in crypto mining while allowing state control over Cryptocurrency markets.

On the other side of the world, Argentina and South Korea have proposed new crypto regulations too. In fact, Argentina’s regulations will have a massive impact on stablecoins as the country moves to dollarize the economy.

Impact on stablecoins
The recent ruling will have a major impact on stablecoins markets. Reduced institutional investments in stablecoins such as USDT might change the market landscape. As noted by Amit Jaswal on X,

“Interesting move by the Basel Committee! Giving permissioned stablecoins preferential treatment could shift the crypto landscape.”
The move will disadvantage the stablecoins, thus jeopardizing the stablecoin markets with reduced inflows and institutional interests.

$BNB has been facing turbulence in the present bull run as the BNB price fails to leave impressive gains. Investors are drawn towards sustainable platforms that provide more growth potential as compared to BNB. Thus, DTX Exchange emerges victorious in the DeFi space due to its unprecedented growth.

The trading platform successfully raises $1 million in the presale stage 2. It has also crossed 6,000 wallets within a day, thereby breaking the records set by Uniswap (UNI). The market performance of DTX Exchange is being compared to Uniswap (UNI) due to its soaring momentum.

BNB Price Analysis: Bearish outlook for BNB price

BNB price fluctuates greatly as it breaks the local support of $568.60 on the hourly chart. Market experts suggest that if the daily bar closes below it, the decline may continue to the $560 zone tomorrow. If the closure happens below it, there is a good chance of seeing a test of the $540-$550 zone by the end of the week.

From the midterm point of view, the rate of BNB price has again failed to fix above the $585.30 level. If the weekly bar closes far from it, bears may again seize the initiative, which could lead to a drop to the $550 mark. BNB is trading at $567.30 at press time.

The daily chart of BNB price analysis reveals a mixed picture as it is an amalgamation of green and red candles. Moreover, the BNB price has shown an upsurge of about 9% within a week but failed to maintain an increase over a month. The BNB price chart over a month shows a decrease of 2.13%.

Uniswap (UNI) Battles Ongoing Price Declines

Uniswap (UNI) has established itself as a strong player in the bull market. It has shown exponential gains in the market, making it a precedent of growth and success. Therefore, emerging platforms are often compared to Uniswap (UNI), if they manage to perform well in the market.

However, Uniswap (UNI) has been facing turbulence in this bull run. The daily price chart of Uniswap (UNI) paints a mixed picture of gains and losses as it is a blend of red and green candles. The Uniswap (UNI) token is currently priced at $7.9.

Uniswap’s UNI token has seen a 10.23% drop as it reaches the current price. This decline is part of a broader trend, with the token’s price decreasing 19.0% from $11.06. Additionally, UNI’s trading volume has fallen by 15.17%, while its circulating supply has slightly risen by 0.08% to 753.77 million. Currently, with a market capitalization of $6.73 billion, UNI ranks 19th globally. The expanding Bollinger Bands on its chart indicate continued high volatility

DTX Exchange (DTX) Sets A Precedent With $1 Million Presale Raise In Stage 2

DTX Exchange is gaining significant attention in the DeFi space due to its meteoric presale raise. The platform has readily raised $1 million in the second stage of its presale, only by completing 46% of the second stage. Market experts say that the platform is soon emerging as an unbeatable force in the DeFi sector.

The cutting-edge hybrid platform has gained momentum due to its 1000x leverage feature and advanced trading solutions, involving multi-tier accounts and distributive liquidity pools. It has transformed traditional trading schemas with the help of AI tools and Automation strategies.

The provision of non-custodial wallets reduces the possibility of any security breach and gives users complete control over their private keys and digital assets, making it user-friendly. DTX Exchange’s security protocols enable safe trading and dependable, quick transactions (less than 0.04 seconds). Thus, the platform is gradually becoming traders’ favorite.

Traders have access to the most comprehensive reference material thanks to DTX Exchange. It provides a multitude of graphs, charts, and analytical tools, enabling users to stay ahead of the curve and make the best decisions. As a platform with a licence, DTX strictly abides by operating policies to preserve the trading experience and traders’ digital assets.

Key Takeaways

DTX Exchange’s meteoric rise in the crypto realm has left the investors spellbound. The emerging platform is being compared to Uniswap (UNI). As BNB price faces volatility, DTX soars with a $1 million raise.

Amidst the slowdown in the price of Bonk (BONK), fellow memecoins Dogecoin (DOGE) and Shiba Inu (SHIB) have shown bullish potential in the past few days. Meanwhile, with the next bullish season approaching, investors are taking advantage of ETFSwap’s (ETFS) potential for significant gains.
Memecoins Dogecoin (DOGE) And Shiba Inu (SHIB) Show Bullish Potential Despite BONK Challenges
Dogecoin (DOGE) and Shiba Inu (SHIB) have both experienced price surges, indicating the potential for a bullish run among the meme coins. In contrast, the price of Bonk (BONK) has been consolidating within the past week, reflecting the impact of price decreases on altcoins.
The dog-themed meme coins, Dogecoin (DOGE) and Shiba Inu (SHIB), were trading at $0.11754 and $0.00001790, respectively, after reaching a low on July 4th, according to data from CoinGecko. Meanwhile, Bonk’s (BONK) price faced resistance at $0.00002700 after a rally on July 4th and is currently trading at $0.00002400.
Over the past few months, Bonk (BONK) has seen a decrease in market capitalization from $3 billion to a disappointing $1.65 billion. According to the CMF indicator, which is used to gauge buying and selling pressure for cryptocurrencies, the CMF value of Bonk (BONK) below zero suggests that sellers are more active, pushing the price further down.
Investors have reacted unfavorably to the consolidation and Bonk’s (BONK) failure to surpass resistance levels from the previous week. This is obvious in the meme coin’s funding rate turning negative, indicating that more capital is flowing out of the token and reflecting bearish sentiment among investors.
Dogecoin (DOGE) and Shiba Inu (SHIB) have surpassed last week’s resistance level, suggesting a potential increase in price for these meme coins, especially Shiba Inu (SHIB). Renowned crypto analyst Trader Tardigrade announced this via X (formerly Twitter) and highlighted Dogecoin’s chart pattern from the past in an X (formerly Twitter) post.
The descending pattern has occurred twice in Dogecoin’s (DOGE) chart pattern in the past. The technical chart pattern signals a downward correction in the overall upward price trend. A breakout above the correction level signals a bullish rally for the token. Tardigrade affirmed that the meme coin is repeating the same pattern and may soon experience a bull run.
ETFSwap (ETFS) Will Dominate The Bullish Season Without a Doubt
ETFSwap (ETFS) integrates Decentralised Finance (DeFi) with ETF trading, allowing traders to enjoy trading tokenized ETFs in a secure environment. Additionally, the platform mirrors the value of traditional ETFs in tokenized versions, allowing investors to expand their reach.
As pioneers in this innovative space, ETFSwap (ETFS) enables users to invest in a wide range of real-world assets through tokenized ETFs, providing increased liquidity and market accessibility. Additionally, ETFSwap (ETFS) facilitates efficient trading and profitability by minimizing slippage and offering tight spreads so buy and sell orders are always taken at the best possible prices.
ETFSwap (ETFS) provides AI-powered analytical tools and real-time market data, empowering users with comprehensive market insights to make informed decisions and respond quickly to market changes. This ensures that traders and investors have greater control over their portfolio investments.
ETFSwap (ETFS) prioritizes user confidence by implementing robust security measures designed to safeguard user information and investments. Additionally, ETFSwap (ETFS) has completed Know Your Customer (KYC) verification conducted by SolidProof, a smart contract security auditing firm. This verification process enhances trust in the platform by confirming the identity of the team, and reassures investors that their investments are in safe hands.
Conclusions
As investors struggle with altcoins and Bonk (BONK), Dogecoin (DOGE) and Shiba Inu (SHIB) offer bullish investment opportunities. ETFSwap (ETFS) is another cryptocurrency gaining attention on social media. Its native coin is currently in presale and is priced at $0.01831. Buy the presale now to access a 50% bonus by using the promo code “ETFS50.”