Monat: Februar 2023

• Binance Coin price fell amid news around Paxos and its stablecoin BUSD
• BNB traded to lows of $284, extending intraday declines from highs of $321 as uncertainty engulfed the stablecoin.
• Paxos, which issues and handles BUSD redemptions, announced it had halted its relationship with Binance.

BNB, the native coin of the Binance exchange, has extended intraday losses to over 10% as price action continued to suffer from negative news.

BNB price dumps 10% amid BUSD reports

As we reported earlier, Binance Coin had dropped by nearly 6% in the morning as the market reacted to news surrounding Binance USD (BUSD), a stablecoin owned and issued by US regulated company Paxos Trust.

But BUSD is the main stablecoin in the Binance ecosystem and the news that Paxos had been ordered to stop issuing any new tokens triggered massive outflows. The negative sentiment increased as it emerged the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) was suing Paxos, which later on in the day announced it had terminated its relationship with Binance regarding the brand’s link to BUSD.

Here’s a chart by one market analyst showing an earlier reaction to the news.

Binance coin BNB slumped >8% after New York Regulator ordered Paxos Trust to stop creating more of its #BUSD token. BUSD is a stablecoin backed by US Dollar, which was created in 2019 in partnership betw crypto platform Binance & blockchain comp Paxos. BNB is native Binance token pic.twitter.com/TXu514EEQ6

— Holger Zschaepitz (@Schuldensuehner) February 13, 2023

While Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao announced the exchange would continue to support the stablecoin, he did acknowledge there would be migrations to other stablecoins as result of the regulatory uncertainty.

The price action for BNB on Monday afternoon has thus seen the coin trade to lows of $284, with these level the lowest for Binance Coin since 18 January 2023. The coin currently trades around $286 according to data from CoinGecko.

Today’s losses have pushed the price -13% down on the seven day chart.

The post Binance Coin extends losses as BNB dumps 10% amid negative news appeared first on CoinJournal.

• Cathie Wood bought 162,325 shares of Coinbase Global Inc on Friday.
• Her stake in the crypto exchange is now worth more than $18 billion.
• Coinbase stock has already rallied about 70% since the start of 2023.

Shares of Coinbase Global Inc have already rallied about 70% this year but Cathie Wood remains convinced they’re not out of room to run just yet.

How many shares of Coinbase did she buy?

That’s based on a rather massive sum of money she recently spent on buying Coinbase stock.

The famed investor took about a month-long break from investing in the crypto exchange. On Friday, though, she returned and bought 162,325 shares of Coinbase.

In total, the recent purchase was worth $9.20 million and was split between two of her funds; the flagship ARK Innovation ETF (ARKK) and ARK Next Generation Internet ETF (ARKW).

Interesting, Wood bought Coinbase stock ahead of the anticipated year-on-year weakness in its Q4 results. Next week, the Nasdaq-listed firm is expected to report $2.39 a share of loss for its fourth financial quarter – well below $3.32 a share it “earned” a year ago.

SEC is getting more aggressive against crypto

Earlier in February, Cathie Wood reiterated her super bullish view on Bitcoin, which, she said, will eventually be worth $500,000.

She’s keeping optimistic despite a more aggressive Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) that recently pushed Kraken into terminating its crypto-staking operations in the U.S. It’s worth noting that Coinbase offers similar services to its U.S. clients as well.

On Monday, the regulator ordered Paxos Trust to stop issuing Binance USD as well. Nonetheless, across all eight of her funds, Wood now owns more than $18 billion worth of Coinbase Global Inc. The crypto company accounts for 3.88% of her total holdings.

Wall Street currently has a consensus “hold” rating on Coinbase stock.

The post Cathie Wood spends another $9.20 million on Coinbase stock appeared first on CoinJournal.

• HANetf co-founder & co-CEO Hector McNeil was commenting on the UK Treasury and Bank of England’s recent announcement regarding a digital pound.
• McNeil says “cash is on decline” and that the “future of finance and money is digital.”
• Yield App CIO Lucas Kiely last week told CoinJournal that the UK’s digital pound and CBDCs in general are not a threat to crypto.

HANetf co-CEO and co-founder Hector McNeil has commented on the recent announcement by the UK Treasury and Bank of England regarding the possibility of a central bank digital currency dubbed the Digital Pound.

As CoinJournal reported last week, the UK unveiled a consultation paper on the launch of the digital pound, with the BoE noting that if it ends up releasing the digital currency, its use would be alongside cash. Per the UK central bank, the digital pound would not replace the fiat currency even as the plan is to have more households and businesses adopt it for payments.

McNeil says the UK’s move is part of the government’s push to remain in control of the country’s financial system.

The future of finance and money is digital – HANetf’s McNeil

According to McNeil, “cash is on the decline, with growing numbers of consumers embracing digital payments,” a fact that sees the government view the digital pound as an important project.

The concern, he noted in comments shared with CoinJournal, is that the UK government feels the central bank issued digital currency is key to the BoE retaining control of the financial system.

“The argument for the digital pound is that the UK state should guard its role of ensuring the stability and usability of money,” the fund manager said. He continued:

“Of course, there are all sorts of potential questions about the future of the financial system. Would a digital pound mean less cash held in bank deposits? What does this mean for the business models of commercial banks and their ability to lend? In times of financial stress, would consumers remove their money from commercial banks to their digital wallet, creating the potential for a bank run?”

McNeil pointed to the government “pre-empting” some of the above concerns with the announcement that there would be a limit to how much of the digital pound users would hold. Indeed, the Treasury has floated the idea of a limit of between 10,000-20,000 (digital) pounds in individual wallets.

What does this say of the digital pound then? McNeil thinks the idea of limiting what one can hold reduces the digital currency’s attractiveness.

“With the current various methods of digital payments seamless and already in widespread use, what would be the incentive for consumers to instead use Digital Pounds in a limited wallet with restrictions on the amount held?” he posed. 

While the UK Treasury and the BoE might have to rethink this plan, the HANetf exec opines that recent announcements concerning the digital pound project confirms that “the future of finance and money is digital.”

Lucas Kiely, the CIO of digital wealth platform Yield App also thinks the launch of the digital pound would be positive for crypto. As highlighted in our coverage of the news last week, Kiely believes CBDCs are inevitable and do not necessarily pose a threat to crypto.

Rather, according to him, bringing traditional finance on-chain, such as through the digital pound, will only help spur further innovation and adoption of crypto.

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