Strengths
- Of the cryptocurrencies tracked by CoinMarketCap, the best performer for the week was SingularityNET, rising 114.48%.
- Fairshake, the crypto super political action committee that’s raked in millions in recent months, raised $4.9 million from billionaire twins Cameron Winklevoss and Tyler Winklevoss, according to its latest federal fillings, writes Bloomberg.
- The Bloomberg Galaxy DeFi Index of digital coins involved in decentralized finance rose 8.8% this week.
Weaknesses
- Of the cryptocurrencies tracked by CoinMarketCap, the worst performer for the week was Helium, down 16.86%.
- The operator of the $28 billion USDC stablecoin, axed support for the Tron blockchain created by crypto entrepreneur Justin Sun. The decision arose from a “risk management framework” that continually assesses the suitability of all blockchains for the stablecoin, writes Bloomberg.
- Bitcoin is still a pernicious phenomenon with no intrinsic value despite its U.S. approval as an asset for inclusion in ETFs, two European Central Bank staff members wrote. The blog post on Thursday by Ulrich Bindseil, the Frankfurt institution’s market infrastructure and payments director general reiterated the group’s long-held view that the digital currency presents risk to both society and the environment, writes Bloomberg.
Opportunities
- Trading volumes of VanEck’s HODL ETF surged over 2,200% on Tuesday in a move driven by individual traders. HODL traded over $400 million in volumes on Tuesday, a 22-fold jump over its daily average of $17 million, writes Bloomberg.
- Japan inched closer to allowing venture capital firms and other investment funds to hold digital assets directly, after Prime Minister Fumio Kishida’s administration agreed to submit a revised bill to implement the change, writes Bloomberg.
- Korea Digital Asset (KODA), the largest institutional crypto custody service in South Korea, announced Thursday that the value of crypto assets under its custody expanded by nearly 248% in the second half of 2023, writes Bloomberg.
Threats
- High Court ruled to extradite former crypto mogul Do Kwon to the U.S. Kwon, 32, was arrested nearly a year ago in Montenegro on an international arrest warrant in connection with a $40 billion crash of Terraform Labs’ cryptocurrency. “Do Kwon’s extradition to the U.S. has been approved, whereas the request by South Korea was rejected,” High Court spokeswoman Marija Rakovic said by phone, and as reported by Bloomberg.
- Nigeria ordered telecommunications companies and other internet service providers in the West African nation to block access to cryptocurrency trading platforms, a presidential spokesman confirmed, Bloomberg reports.
- The crypto industry is ramping up attacks on anti-crime legislation from Senator Elizabeth Warren, arguing that its passage would effectively kill the sector in the U.S. “This bill, if passed, will erase hundreds of billions of dollars in value for U.S. startups and decimate the savings of countless Americans invested in this asset class legally,” said Perianne Boring the founder of the Chamber of Digital Commerce trade group.
