Daily Archives: June 3, 2022

On-chain data shows the Bitcoin NUL indicator is still below a value of 0.5, a sign that more downtrend could be in store for the crypto before the bottom is in.

Bitcoin Net Unrealized Loss Surges Up, But Still Remains Below 0.5

As pointed out by an analyst in a CryptoQuant post, the cryptocurrency’s price may still be nowhere near a bottom.

The relevant indicator here is the “net unrealized loss” (or NUL in brief), which tells us about the total number of coins that are currently holding an unrealized loss.

The metric works by comparing the last selling price of each coin on the chain to the current value of Bitcoin. If the previous previous of any coin was more than the current one, then that coin is holding a loss right now.

On the other hand, the current price being more than the last selling value would imply that the coin is in profit at the moment.

Related Reading | Bitcoin Falls Below $30k As 10k BTC Flow Into Gemini

The NUL metric only takes into account the former type of coins. Another indicator, the net unrealized profit (NUP), measures the latter category.

Now, here is a chart that shows the trend in the Bitcoin NUL over the history of the coin:

The value of the indicator seems to have been rising recently | Source: CryptoQuant

In the above graph, the quant has marked the two different zones of the Bitcoin NUL, with the metric value equal to 0.5 line being the divider between them.

It looks like historically, the price of the crypto has tended to observe the major bottoms when the indicator’s value has been greater than 0.5

Related Reading | Can FTX Token (FTT) And Parody Coin (PARO) Join Bitcoin (BTC) As The Biggest Cryptocurrency In 2022?

As you can see in the chart, the NUL metric has observed some uptrend in recent months. This is because the value of Bitcoin has been declining during this period, leading to more coins going underwater.

However, despite this recent rise, it seems like the net unrealized loss’ current value is still well below the 0.5 level.

If past trend is anything to go by, Bitcoin may observe further downtrend in the coming future before the NUL’s value exceeds the threshold and a bottom is formed.

BTC Price

At the time of writing, Bitcoin’s price floats around $29.7k, up 3% in the last seven days. Over the past month, the crypto has lost 23% in value.

The below chart shows the trend in the price of the coin over the last five days.

Looks like the value of the crypto has gone down over the last couple of days | Source: BTCUSD on TradingView

Featured image from Unsplash.com, charts from TradingView.com, CryptoQuant.com

Terra remained the focus of the majority of headlines throughout May for its spiral collapse leading to a loss of over $40 billion in investors’ money. Despite some early resistance from the community and heavy backlash from the likes of Binance CEO Changpeng “CZ” Zhao, Terra co-founder Do Kwon managed to relaunch the collapsed network with a new chain called Terra 2.0 (Phoenix-1).

The amended proposal for the relaunch of the network by increasing the genesis liquidity, which introduces a new liquidity profile for pre-attack Luna Classic (LUNC) holders and decreases the distribution to post-attack TerraUSD Classic (USTC) holders, was approved by the community with a 65% vote in favor.

The new blockchain went live on May 28 after a hard fork. The new token stays Terra (LUNA) and the old one was rebranded to Luna Classic. With the new network launch, the holders of LUNC, USTC and Anchor Protocol UST (aUST) were eligible to receive the new tokens.

Despite industry-wide outrage against Do Kwon — the co-founder and the parent company Terraform Labs are facing lawsuits and investigations in South Korea — major crypto exchanges including Binance, Kucoin, FTX, Bitfinex and several others announced support for the Terra 2.0 chain.

Cointelegraph reached out to Binance to inquire about the reasoning behind its listing of the LUNC on its platform, especially when the market is still recovering from the after-effects of the $40 billion collapse. A Binance spokesperson told Cointelegraph:

“Binance listed LUNA on the Innovation Zone, which is a dedicated trading zone where users can trade new tokens that may have increased volatility and pose a higher risk than other tokens. Before being able to trade on the Innovation Zone, every user has to visit the web version of the Innovation Zone trading page and complete a questionnaire after reading the Binance Terms of Use.”

Binance claimed that the purpose of the Terra 2.0 was to compensate those who had lost a significant amount of funds during the crash of the main network. As a platform, “Binance decided to let people trade the airdropped tokens to realize their assets.”

CZ has also said that he is not very optimistic about the future of the Terra 2.0 ecosystem and that the decision to list the new token was based on helping investors recover some of their losses. Speaking to Cointelegraph, Zhao said:

“We still need to ensure continuity of people’s access to liquidity. We have to support the revival plan hoping that it may work.”

Kraken CEO Jesse Powell also defended listing LUNA, saying it’s the community’s demand. However, he did mention that a listing doesn’t necessarily equal an endorsement for the controversial token.

Related: ​​Kraken CEO defends listing LUNA 2.0: ‘Bitcoin traders don’t pay the bills’

Customer satisfaction seems to be a common concern for the continued listing fo the asset. Bitrue crypto exchange research analyst Whitney Setiawan told Cointelegraph:

“As an exchange, Bitrue’s main priority is customer satisfaction, as it’s only right that we give our Bitruers the freedom to invest in assets of their choice. We are still closely monitoring developments from the Luna Foundation Guard investigation and would take immediate action should the situation get worse.”

Terra 2.0 sees heavy volatility

The launch of the new network was nothing less than a frenzy. To begin with, many investors claimed that they were not appropriately compensated for the new airdrop. The Terra 2.0 team acknowledged the issue and said they are working to resolve the issue soon.

Many users also joked about how the new airdrop is a mockery, given that people have lost hundreds of thousands of dollars and received about $50 worth of new tokens in return:

Lost $300k in $LUNA

Got an airdrop of $59

Thank you do kwon and team

— Ash WSB (@ashwsbreal) May 29, 2022

The new airdropped token started trading across multiple crypto exchanges on May 28. However, as warned by many, the new token showed very high price volatility on the very first day of the relaunch, dropping by over 70%. Many investors who received the new LUNA started selling as soon as they received it, showing a lack of confidence in the new ecosystem.

LUNA was listed for $18.85 on the relaunch day but subsequently plummeted to $5.71 before recovering half of its losses a day before the Binance listing. The token is currently trading at $6.44, according to Cointelegraph data, nearly one-third of its listing price.

Justin Hartzman, CEO of crypto trading platform Coinsmart, told Cointelegraph, “Precaution is always better than cure. Why list a project with some very noticeable flaws, noted by many well-known folks on Twitter, and then ignore them? Exchanges must make their listing process more secure and rigid. Too much money and too many lives are at stake here.”

A user who reportedly lost a significant amount of money investing in LUNC wrote:

“I don’t see any fundamentals here & I see whatever I get as a bonus since I already wrote everything off as a loss & $0. If not that the others are vesting, I’ll sell ‘em all.”

Do Kwon has a track record of failed projects

There is a famous meme going around on Crypto Twitter that compares the fate of two fund managers, who each lost investors billions of dollars. One is Bernie Madoff, the notorious financier who was sentenced to 150 years in prison after running a $60 billion Ponzi scheme — the world’s largest — and Do Kwon, who managed to relaunch a new network just two weeks after losing billions of dollars.

In 2009, Bernie Madoff lost investors $60 billion. He was sentenced to 150 years in prison.

In 2022, Do Kwon lost investors $60 billion after Luna collapsed to $0. He then created Luna 2.0. pic.twitter.com/CkCC8AKPVR

— Fintwit (@fintwit_news) May 29, 2022

The meme highlights the lack of regulatory oversight in the crypto space, where multi-billion-dollar mistakes and scams have little to no checks or balances. 

Terra’s algorithmic stablecoin collapse was not the first time Kwon has launched a failed experimental project. At the peak of the Terra collapse saga, it was revealed that Do Kwon was also behind another failed stablecoin project called Basis Cash (BAC).

Many experts also believe that even though exchanges are liable to listen to the community and list the new token, a future project led by Do Kwon would be hard to accept. Zachary Greene, who runs crypto-investing and finance website the Greenery Financial, told Cointelegraph:

“I believe Do Kwon heading operations will hold Terra 2.0 from being accepted and seen as a legitimate reboot. Whether he was responsible for the mismanagement of the reserves or not, he seems to be blamed by the community and crypto space for the disaster that was the collapse of LUNC and USTC. In my opinion, any project with him as the lead, at least for the next few years, will be dogged on by the crypto community.”

The Terra and Terra 2.0 story is still unfolding. Whether anything malicious happened with the stablecoin or if it was just a failed experiment, only time will tell. 

Even in traditional markets, however, we’ve seen time and time again how failed executives hop from one executive position to another. It’s not shocking to see Do Kwon at the helm of Terra 2.0, but it should definitely make investors pause and think twice before investing.

What makes the case against Kwon is his reluctance to foresee the problems and act accordingly. Many have been warning against USTC’s peg being backed by volatile assets and Terra using community funds to buy Bitcoin (BTC), but most of it went unnoticed amid tall promises from the project’s management.

The Terra co-founder and the majority of the employees at Terraform Labs is currently under investigation on various charges including tax evasion, market manipulation and more. While the community can’t be blamed for approving the relaunch plan since they hoped to recover some of their funds with the airdrop, Kwon’s leading the charge once again could prove problematic for the community in the long term.

Spanish crypto exchange company Bit2me and the fund manager Inveready presented today the first HUB dedicated to Web3.0, a new Crypto HUB that will provide services to startups in the sector through a venture builder (Wagmi) and a crypto startup accelerator.

The creation of the Web3Hub is evidence of Bit2Me and Inveready’s commitment to innovation in web 3.0, a concept that encompasses all those initiatives based on cryptographic algorithms with decentralised governance and with different financial ramifications in this new ecosystem of the digital economy.

This latest initiative is part of Bit2Me’s goal of making Spain a world leader in cryptocurrencies and blockchain technology.

The Bit2Me and Inveready accelerator will support startups whose development is framed within blockchain technology. Bit2Me seeks to invest and work with projects that may have business potential while aiming to boost the ecosystem to generate relationships and value between different organisations, universities, and investors.

Programme

The acceleration programme will last six months from the launch of the call and will include workshops in hybrid format, specific training, and mentoring. The selected startups will receive an investment of around €100,000 between Bit2Me and Inveready to develop and improve their minimum viable product (MVP) while being assigned to a mentor.

“With the creation of Web3Hub we want to create a crypto and blockchain talent circulation factory in Spain. The goal we have at Bit2Me is to become the leading value creation company in the crypto world covering all stages of the life of a technology project,” says Leif Ferreira, CEO & Co-Founder of Bit2Me.

“From Inveready we are very happy to continue supporting the development of web3 initiatives, as we firmly believe that Blockchain-based applications will bring a lot of value to our society; and that the Barcelona Hub will become the focal point of the country for entrepreneurs in this field to find everything they need in terms of funding, operational support and networking to succeed with their projects”, explains Aniol Brosa, Partner of Inveready.

During the event Wagmi will also be presented, the first Web3.0 venture studio in Spain, a digital business factory with blockchain technologies whose mission is to help companies manage the change of value and ownership in this new era of decentralised internet and based on the trust of blockchain protocols.

Wagmi’s mission is to create the largest crypto ecosystem in Southern Europe and Latin America through verticalised projects around several areas: decentralised finance (DeFi), non fungible tokens (NFTs), securities tokenisation (STOs), decentralised autonomous organisations (DAOs), among others.

In the words of André Caçador, CEO of Wagmi: “We are at the beginning of a new era of the internet. Blockchain technology is the infrastructure on which to build digital business models and has the potential to improve the way we interact as a society. At Wagmi, we believe that these types of projects will be prevalent in the next decade”.

The presentation was held at Bit2me’s office in Barcelona. The startup, which has a international team of more than 200 people and offices in the Valencian Community, recently opened its new headquarters in the heart of Barcelona, as part of its strategy to turn Spain into a global crypto benchmark.

Leif Ferreira, CEO of Bit2Me: “Barcelona has always been a dynamic and diverse city with a great focus on business innovation and talent attraction. That is why Bit2Me wanted to open an office in Barcelona and carry out the Web3Hub in this magnificent city”.

A video broadcast is now available on YouTube via this link.

Crypto asset prices crashed in early May, when BTC fell nearly -32% from $39,500 to $27,000 within a week.

Could this be the beginning of a long crypto winter? Or do the on-chain metrics tell a different story? In Kraken Intelligence’s latest report, Survival Mode, the team investigates key on-chain data points to explore where the crypto market stands today and what may lie ahead.

State of the market

Over the last month, crypto assets slumped as U.S. inflation rates continued to hover around 40-year highs. Russia’s ongoing military operations in Ukraine also contributed to the risk-off sentiment across financial markets. The Terra ecosystem also experienced a large-scale death spiral in May, further contributing to broad-based declines.

While BTC/USD trended lower in May, altcoins performed worse, leading the crypto market lower across almost all assets. Overall, altcoin dominance (the ratio between the market capitalization of a crypto asset to the total market cap of the entire crypto market) also fell year-to-date. ADA dominance rose month-over-month in May, while ALGO saw the smallest dominance decline, followed by DOT, ETH, NEAR, SOL and AVAX.

On-chain fundamentals

Network transaction volume continues to present mixed sentiment. Since January 2022, on-chain volume for ADA has seen a strong upward trend, while BTC, ETH, DOT, DOGE and ALGO saw on-chain volume fall. 

New addresses and active addresses also reflect mixed sentiment of on-chain demand, leaning negative. While SOL active addresses rose, signaling network demand from existing and new market participants, BTC, ETH, AVAX, ADA, ALGO and DOT saw a drop in active addresses.

Want to learn more about on-chain activity in May and what’s ahead? Download the Kraken Intelligence report Survival Mode, in which the team explores the crypto fundamentals and on-chain data that shaped the market in May.

Alejandro Zelaya, Treasury minister of El Salvador, explained that the conflict happening currently between Ukraine and Russia has influenced the price of bitcoin on international markets, disrupting it. Due to this disruption, Zelaya also stated that it was not feasible to issue the volcano bonds yet, which are to finance the construction of the Bitcoin City announced last year by President Nayib Bukele.

Treasury Minister of El Salvador Says Conflict Is Affecting Bitcoin Price Action

Military conflict and geopolitical unrest might be affecting the performance of the price of bitcoin in the cryptocurrency market. This is the opinion of Alejandro Zelaya, the minister of the Treasury of El Salvador, who connected these variables to delays the launch of the volcano bonds is experiencing.

In an interview on a local television network, Zelaya explained that he believes investors might have diverted some of their funds to other industries during the Russia-Ukraine conflict. He stated:

With the arrival of the conflict between Russia and Ukraine, many investments in crypto became investments in companies related to the arms industry. There were transfers of investments to the pharmaceutical industry and in other cases, these went to companies that manufacture agricultural supplies.

Furthermore, Zelaya explained that, due to this disruption in prices caused by the aforementioned conflict, it is not the time to issue El Salvador’s volcano bonds. These bonds, which will be used to finance part of the Bitcoin City, projected to use only geothermal energy to power its operations, were previously set to be launched during the first three months of the current year.

HODL Mode Activated

Zelaya called out experts that are criticizing the bitcoin purchases that the government of El Salvador has executed through its president, Nayib Bukele. Currently, El Salvador holds more than 2,500 BTC in its wallets, purchased at different prices, with Bukele announcing he had “bought the dip” several times.

Zelaya indicated that these bitcoins were not purchased to be sold and that there was no loss associated with the purchase without having exchanged them for other assets. He stated:

They always come out and say ‘they’ve lost,’ when we haven’t really sold the coin. If you don’t sell the coins, you keep them, you wait [until] the price goes up again.

What do you think about the statements of Treasury minister Alejandro Zelaya on the price of bitcoin and the launch delay of the volcano bonds? Tell us in the comments section below.

Sergio Goschenko

Sergio is a cryptocurrency journalist based in Venezuela. He describes himself as late to the game, entering the cryptosphere when the price rise happened during December 2017. Having a computer engineering background, living in Venezuela, and being impacted by the cryptocurrency boom at a social level, he offers a different point of view about crypto success and how it helps the unbanked and underserved.

Image Credits: Shutterstock, Pixabay, Wiki Commons

The Terra LUNA crash last month sent many investors back in their returns. The crypto market generally crashed the previous month, but the 80% deep dive in Terra wasn’t funny. The panic by the investors to pull out of the crypto crash intensified the fall of many coins. Generally, the crypto market suffered a loss estimated at $400 billion in a few days.

Surprisingly, a new report has emerged showing that while the Whales were dumping their holdings, the retailers were busy buying up Terra. According to the Terra investor who made the report, many smaller wallets were stocking up the coin amid the panic.

New findings that many withdrawals and swaps were going on. Most of the outflows were going on Terra’s Anchor Protocol during the early days of the crash in May.

Related Reading | Bitcoin Exchange Outflows Suggest That Investors Are Starting To Accumulate

The Terra crash caused a lot of pain in the crypto market. According to the Policy head at Blockchain Association, Jake Chervinsky, the crash week was one of the most painful days in the history of cryptocurrency.

Diverse Reasons For Terra Crash

Many people have speculated several reasons for the crash. But one glaring reason is the operations of the Terra’s Anchor Protocol. According to how stablecoins operate, they’re backed by reserves which should always be adequate to pay off investors even if they all pull out at the same time.

But UST is a stablecoin that operates with algorithms relying on code. This coin needs continuous market activities and the belief that it is pegged to the dollars to work. Also, many people trusted the link to its base currency, LUNA.

So when Anchor Protocol, owned by Terra, came up with a 20% return on lending six months ago, investors rushed in to cash out the ample opportunity.

The UST started seeing massive purchases as all the investors targeted the 20% returns. Of course, many critics called it a Ponzi scheme, and even the Terra team members acknowledged it but argued that it was a means of creating awareness for the protocol.

Related Reading | Bitcoin Rests Tentatively Above $31,000, Bull Rally Or Trap?

Unfortunately, many large investors decided to pull out their investments to make big money through short-selling. As a result, UST depegged from the USD. Many people panicked and wanted to get all their earned interest out before a further crash. This bank-run also crashed Luna and brought UST to 12 cents and Luna to fractions of a penny.

One other reason for the Terra crash might be attributed to the crypto sentiment that was going on following the Federal Reserve’s rate increase. Also, the increasing inflation affected the market at that time too.

So, there were a lot of issues going on, and people were already worried about the hope of crypto investments. Terra Luna’s crash also facilitated the already tethering crypto market crash.

Even the attempts by small depositors to increase their holdings on Anchor didn’t work because their overall liquidity is just a fraction of what is needed on the protocol.

Featured image from Pixabay, chart from TradingView.com

As New York pursues efforts to ban proof-of-work (PoW) crypto mining, the attorney general reminded investors of the risks associated with investing in crypto. 

In an investor alert published Thursday, New York Attorney General Letitia James said that investors are “losing billions” in crypto. James highlighted that even digital assets that are well-known and traded in reputable exchanges can crash. Because of this, the attorney general is convinced that crypto investments create “more pain than gain” for investors.

Apart from this, James urged New Yorkers to take extra caution when putting their money into crypto. Because of its volatility, the attorney general said that these investments may become a source of anxiety instead of a fortune.

The cryptocurrency market is extremely unpredictable. Just last month, the market reached record lows and investors lost hundreds of billions.
 
New Yorkers should be cautious and think twice before putting their hard-earned money into this unstable market.

— NY AG James (@NewYorkStateAG) June 2, 2022

The published alert also highlighted several factors to discourage investors, including the unpredictability of the market, difficulties in cashing out, high transaction costs and the instability of some stablecoins. The announcement also reminded investors that many digital currencies are unregulated.

The alert came as the New York State Senate passed a bill banning PoW mining within the state. If the bill gets approved by Governor Kathy Hochul, new mining operations will be prohibited, and those with licenses to operate will not be able to renew their permits.

Related: US energy company opens crypto mining facility in Middle East to use stranded natural gas

Meanwhile, Kenya-based energy company KenGen called on Bitcoin (BTC) miners to purchase its excess renewable energy. According to an executive at the company, there is lots of space within the country and they are eager to welcome miners.

As the bear market continues, BTC mining revenue is also showing a downward trend. On May 24, the daily mining revenue recorded a new eleven-month low of $22.43 million. This is almost half of what was recorded at the start of May 1, which was $40.57 million.

Binance Labs, the venture capital arm of the leading crypto exchange, has announced the launch of a new fund that will focus its action on Web3 and blockchain technologies. The fund, which will launch with $500 million in capital, will invest in companies that take cryptocurrencies and extend their use cases using Web3 and other technologies.

Binance Labs to Invest $500M in Web3 and Blockchain Startups

Binance Labs, the investment and VC organization of the cryptocurrency exchange, has announced a new round of investments seeking to diversify its investment portfolio. The capital arm of the company has announced it is launching an investment fund to focus on the blockchain and Web3 sector. The fund, which will have $500 million at its disposal, will seek to put money behind projects aiming to extend the functions of cryptocurrencies.

The fund has the participation of DST Global Partners and Breyer Capital, amongst other firms and investors. Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao stated that one of the objectives of this fund is to ease the connection of elements destined to accelerate the adoption of these new technologies. He declared:

The goal of the newly closed investment fund is to discover and support projects and founders with the potential to build and to lead Web3 across defi, NFTs, gaming, metaverse, social, and more.

Investment Strategy

Binance Labs has been around since 2018 and has supported projects that have been relevant in the cryptocurrency and Gamefi industry such as Axie Infinity, Elrond, Dune Analytics, and The Sandbox. The division is specialized in the incubation of such companies, meaning that it funds startups in the field that have just started to operate and are seeking funding and counseling on their operation.

So far, Binance Labs has hosted four seasons of its global incubation project, where more than 100 projects coming from 25 different countries have been incubated by the organization. Incubation will also be a big part of the new fund, with the exchange seeking to connect with these startups and help them to grow by providing them with funding and expertise in different areas.

However, Binance also announced that it will invest in more mature projects including early-stage companies in areas such as defi, NFTs, gaming, metaverse, social, and crypto, and also in already established companies that would act as partners to Binance — extending its functions and reach by using its platform.

What do you think about Binance Labs’ new $500 million Web3 and blockchain fund? Tell us in the comments section below.

Sergio Goschenko

Sergio is a cryptocurrency journalist based in Venezuela. He describes himself as late to the game, entering the cryptosphere when the price rise happened during December 2017. Having a computer engineering background, living in Venezuela, and being impacted by the cryptocurrency boom at a social level, he offers a different point of view about crypto success and how it helps the unbanked and underserved.

Image Credits: Shutterstock, Pixabay, Wiki Commons