Coinbase now has nearly double the trading volume as Uniswap

  • Trading volume at Coinbase Global Inc surpasses that of Uniswap.
  • Analyst says CEXs will always be essential to exchange landscape.
  • Coinbase also terminated trading Binance USD on Monday.

Kaiko – a notable digital assets data provider, on Monday, confirmed that trading volume at Coinbase has now surpassed Uniswap.

Coinbase trading volumes surpass $185 billion

Trading volumes at the cryptocurrency exchange as of end of the recent week climbed to over $185 billion. That’s about double the $93 billion on its decentralised counterpart, Uniswap.

Following the collapse of centralised platforms, including the FTX exchange last year, many expected an increased shift to decentralised exchanges (DEX). But that’s “a bit premature” as per Conor Ryder’s (Kaiko research analyst) response to CoinDesk on Twitter.

Average investor is still put off by worse user experience on some of these DEXs, compared to more straightforward experience on CEXs. I think CEXs will always be an essential part of the exchange landscape.

DEX trading volumes had once hit $113 billion

It is noteworthy here that at one point last year, trading volumes at Coinbase and Uniswap were roughly the same.

Following the FTX fiasco in November, volumes on decentralised exchanges were reported to have touched a whopping $113 billion. In comparison, they’re unlikely to top even $100 billion this month.

Last week, the crypto exchange reported better-than-expected revenue for its fourth financial quarter. Also on Monday, Coinbase terminated trading of Binance USD, saying it fails to justify listing standards. Its shares are currently up more than 75% versus the start of the year.

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Digital Currency Group reported $1.1 billion loss for 2022

  • Digital Currency Group reported a loss of $1.1 billion for 2022, according to the company’s fourth quarter.
  • Cash and cash equivalents as of 31 December 2022 was just $262 million, while the Grayscale parent company had $670 million in investment assets.
  • The consolidated balance sheet showed full year revenue of $719 million for 2022, with $124 million in Q4.

Digital Currency Group (DCG), a US-based crypto company recently in the news for the troubles facing it and some of its subsidiaries following the crypto winter, has reported a $1.1 billion loss for the 2022 financia year.

Crypto publication CoinDesk reported on Monday.

DCG: Market crash and 3AC default impacted balance sheet

According to details in the company’s fourth quarter report, part of the hit to profits came from the crypto market crash. Other than the dump in Bitcoin price, DCG’s balance sheet was also impacted by a major default on Genesis, the firm’s lending platform.

In particular, the company suffered massively from the collapse of crypto hedge fund Three Arrows Capital (3AC), the quarterly report detailed. Genesis filed for bankruptcy in January this year.

DCG reportedly held $5.3 billion in total assets as of 31 December, 2022, with cash and cash equivalents totaling $262 million. However, the consolidated balance sheet also shows investment assets of just $670 million, which included held tokens, venture investments and Grayscale trust shares.

For Q4, the venture capital firm reported revenues of just $143 million, while losses reached $24 million. DCG’s consolidated 2022 revenue was $719 million.

Digital Currency Group is the parent company of Grayscale Investments, Luno, Foundry Services, Genesis Trading, TradeBlock and CoinDesk.

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The Top 10 Meme Coins To Buy In Early 2023

Besides Dogecoin and Shiba Inu, Web3 is filled to the brim with exciting new meme coins. In the past, many meme coins lacked utility, and holders could do little with them besides watch the price go up and down.

Now, Metacade, Shiba Inu, Dogecoin, and many more, are changing the game for meme coins in Web3. Here’s the list of the top 10 meme coins to buy in early 2023:

  • Metacade (MCADE)
  • Dogecoin (DOGE)
  • Bonk (BONK)
  • Floki Inu (FLOKI)
  • Dogelon Mars (ELON)
  • Dogechain (DC)
  • Shiba Inu (SHIB)
  • YooShi (YOOSHI)
  • Samoyedcoin (SAMO)
  • Bone ShibaSwap (BONE)

1. Metacade (MCADE)

Metacade (MCADE) is a fun and accessible platform for playing play-to-earn games on the blockchain. The project has exploded in popularity after a highly successful presale event, in which users can access a range of benefits for joining the ecosystem early.

The project aims to become a central hub for the entire Web3 ecosystem, providing a central location for users to meet up, share the latest gaming alpha, and play some of the best new games that can be found on the blockchain.

Every single game in the Metacade ecosystem has integrated financial rewards. In fact, Metacade will offer the largest collection of play-to-earn titles out of any comparable project, setting it up to be the largest arcade on the blockchain.

Metacade offers a range of additional earning mechanics that make it stand apart from other meme coins. Compete2Earn allows users to earn MCADE tokens in online gaming tournaments, Create2Earn rewards content creators for sharing insights on the platform, and Work2Earn will create blockchain jobs for the crypto community.

>>> You can participate in the Metacade presale here <<<

2. Dogecoin (DOGE)

Dogecoin, or DOGE, is a decentralized peer-to-peer digital currency that was created in 2013. The DOGE meme coin was the first of its kind – a fun and enjoyable cryptocurrency that was initially created as a joke before seeing massive community adoption.

Dogecoin provides users with a convenient way to send and receive payments without the need for third-party services or banks. The meme coin has a large user base and an active community that promotes its use, pushing Dogecoin to the top 10 of all cryptocurrencies by market capitalization.

Dogecoin was created as a fork of Lucky Coin, which was created as a fork of Litecoin, which was created as a fork of Bitcoin. This means that Dogecoin is the only meme coin to have the same underlying consensus mechanism as the Bitcoin blockchain.

3. Bonk (BONK)

Bonk (BONK) is a new meme coin created on the Solana blockchain. It was designed to bring liquidity back into Solana-based decentralized exchanges (DEXs) after the collapse of FTX. This is because FTX and Alameda Research were heavily invested in the Solana ecosystem, which harmed investor confidence and saw many outflows from the network.

Bonk has risen over 1000% since it was first created in December 2022. As the primary meme coin in the Solana ecosystem, it has the potential to grow substantially over the coming years as the Solana network recovers.

Bonk is a community-driven project that allows any Solana user to access a fun, peer-to-peer digital currency. The token is primarily traded on DEXs, which helps to bring volume back into the Solana ecosystem.

4. Floki Inu (FLOKI)

Floki Inu (FLOKI) is a multichain meme coin that has seen major growth since it was first launched in 2021. The FLOKI project has formed major partnerships with leading sports teams around the world, including SSC Napoli, who are the first-placed side in the Italian Serie A.

FLOKI is delivering meme coin utility. The project is developing an NFT gaming metaverse called Valhalla; a selection of DeFi services where users can stake, farm yield, borrow, and lend; and an educational initiative called Floki University that aims to teach new blockchain users about the future of cryptocurrency.

Utility for meme coins is rare, which makes Floki Inu stand out as one of the best meme coins to buy right now. The project continues to build in bearish market conditions, and its lucrative sponsorship deals with world-famous organizations could lead to huge levels of adoption for the FLOKI token.

5. Dogelon Mars (ELON)

Dogelon Mars (ELON) is a community-driven meme coin that plays on several top memes in the world of Web3. The name is a combination of Doge, which was the first ever meme coin, and Elon Musk, who is a famous supporter of the meme coin movement.

While Dogelon Mars has little additional utility, such as applications or services, the meme coin can be traded peer-to-peer without the need for consulting centralized institutions. Users can send ELON over Ethereum, Solana, BSC, and more top blockchains for the purpose of transacting freely across the world.

The project has released a series of comic books that tell the story of Dogelon, the fictional dog on which ELON is based. These comics are narrative-driven, community-focused stories that recount Dogelon’s journey to Mars (it’s a bumpy ride!).

6. Dogechain (DC)

Dogechain (DC) is a layer-2 scaling solution for Dogecoin that solves the biggest drawback of the Dogecoin ecosystem – that is, Dogecoin cannot support decentralized applications (dApps). Despite being a top-ten cryptocurrency by market capitalization, the lack of utility found in the Dogecoin ecosystem may have held it back over recent years.

Dogechain is compatible with Ethereum Virtual Machine, as the developers modified a Polygon sidechain stack to deliver a robust, scalable, and programmable blockchain to bring more utility to Dogecoin. The network uses a proof-of-stake consensus mechanism that offers lucrative rewards for validators.

All Dogecoin holders are eligible for a Dogechain airdrop. Dogecoin can also easily be wrapped and migrated to the Dogechain blockchain. This allows Dogecoin holders improved access to DeFi services, blockchain games, and much more without needing to buy other tokens and join other networks.

7. Shiba Inu (SHIB)

Shiba Inu (SHIB) is a cryptocurrency that was created as a fork of Ethereum. This makes Shiba Inu Turing complete, allowing developers to create smart contracts and deploy dApps on the blockchain. Naturally, this gives Shiba Inu an advantage over many meme coins as it has innate utility.

Since it was first created in 2020, Shiba Inu has grown to become the second most popular meme coin and a top-twenty cryptocurrency by market capitalization. The price famously skyrocketed after 50% of the Shiba Inu total supply was airdropped to Vitalik Buterin, who subsequently burned $6 billion worth of the tokens.

Shiba Inu is now home to an ecosystem of applications, including Shibaverse – a virtual reality metaverse that contains many unique applications. Shiba Inu will also have a layer-2 scaling solution called Shibarium, which will improve the blockchain’s performance and deliver greater throughput for the Shiba Inu network.

8. YooShi (YOOSHI)

YooShi (YOOSHI) started as a classic meme coin that lacked utility. However, the community that adopted YOOSHI soon began to build more applications that were compatible with the YOOSHI token. Now, YooShi is inspired to recreate the Shiba Inu project’s long-term success.

The YooShi ecosystem supports a number of play-to-earn games that reward players with YOOSHI tokens. A core aim of the YooShi ecosystem is to become the largest NFT gaming metaverse, offering a vast number of collectible items that can be deployed and used to earn crypto rewards in online games.

The branding of YooShi is inspired by Yoshi, a character from the Super Mario games. This reflects the project’s desire to become a gaming-focused meme coin, as the ecosystem has already begun to support a selection of different blockchain-based titles.

9. Samoyedcoin (SAMO)

Samoyedcoin (SAMO) is a meme coin based on the Solana blockchain. It was created during the 2021 bull market, right in the midst of the meme coin craze and Solana’s explosive price action.

The SAMO project remarked that the vision of the project is to accelerate the “adoption, development, and growth” of the Solana ecosystem. At the time, Solana had little meme coin appeal, and SAMO can be seen as a pioneer of Solana-based meme coins.

After some explosive price action during 2021, SAMO has struggled during the bear market. The token has fallen significantly in value but may reclaim its previous highs if demand returns for the token. This can happen during major bullish movements in the crypto markets, as meme coins are an accessible entry point for new crypto users.

10. Bone ShibaSwap (BONE)

Bone ShibaSwap is one of three tokens that facilitate improved DeFi functionality in the Shiba Inu ecosystem. BONE itself is the governance token for ShibaSwap, which is a DEX built on Shiba Inu to facilitate peer-to-peer trading on the network.

BONE can be used to vote on governance proposals for ShibaSwap. ShibaSwap has an advanced rewards mechanism that provides passive income to users as they buy and sell digital assets on the platform. Users can provide liquidity, farm rewards, and trade freely on the ShibaSwap exchange.

BONE was created as Shiba Inu began to take off. It helped to deliver more utility for the ecosystem and continues to be an integral part of the way in which Shiba Inu operates to this day. It is a unique meme coin that could produce significant returns for investors over the coming years.

Which are the best meme coins to buy right now?

Without a doubt, Metacade is considered to be one of the best investment opportunities at the beginning of 2023. It is much newer than Dogecoin or Shiba Inu and offers extensive utility to its community. The project could become a leading name in the blockchain gaming space due to it delivering a vast collection of play-to-earn titles all in a single location.

For now, Metacade is still in its presale. This means that it has massive potential for future returns as presales are the earliest stage of investment in crypto. The price of MCADE is rising from $0.008 to $0.02 over the course of the event, so make sure to check it out before it’s too late.

You can participate in the Metacade presale here.

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Binance moved $1.8B of customer funds in a move similar to FTX: report

  • Binance reportedly moved the funds between August and December 2022.
  • A Forbes report claims Binance sent the money to various hedge funds and platforms, including Cumberland, Alameda Research and Tron.
  • CSO Patrick Hillmann says there was no commingling of funds.

Binance reportedly moved more than $1.8 billion in customer funds to different firms, sending them to various hedge funds in a move that was “eerily similar” to what happened before the collapse of FTX.

Per the Forbes report published on Monday 27 February, the commingled funds were collateral to Binance-peg tokens, particularly for the stablecoin USD Coin (USDC). The exchange moved the funds without its customers’ knowledge, and involved transactions from around mid-August to early December 2022, the report added.

Binance sent customers’ funds to multiple firms

Ostensibly, the exchange moved roughly $1.1 billion of its customers’ funds to crypto trading platform Cumberland, a subsidiary of DRW. The trading firm might then have helped convert the funds to Binance USD (BUSD), a stablecoin that was the main trading pair on the Binance exchange.

As reported earlier this month, BUSD issuer Paxos was ordered to stop minting the stablecoin and today, crypto exchange Coinbase announced it would be halting support for BUSD on 13 March 2023.

Apart from Cumberland, other firms that reportedly received customer funds from Binance were digital assets firm Amber Group, FTX subsidiary Alameda Research, and Tron. Binance sent millions of dollars worth of collateral to these companies too.

Earlier this year, Binance acknowledged it had mistakenly stored customers’ funds into the same wallet it keeps collateral for B-tokens. On the events described in the latest report, CSO Patrick Hillmann said what happened before is “normal business” and that there had been no such thing as commingling of funds.

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Coinbase to suspend Binance USD trading in March

  • Binance USD has been under scrutiny by the US SEC which claims that it is a security.
  • NYDFS recently ordered Paxos to stop issuing BUSD.
  • Paxos also went ahead to terminate its relationship with Binance.

US-based cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase has announced that it will suspend Binance USD (BUSD) trading in mid-March. The announcement, which was made via Twitter, mentioned “listing standards.”

Coinbase’s decision to suspend BUSD trading comes two weeks after the US Securities and Exchanges Commission (SEC) issued Paxos Trust with a wells notice for issuing a security, the BUSD. SEC’s notice triggered a number of other repercussions including the New York Department of Financial Services (NYDFS) ordering Paxos to halt BUSD issuance which Paxos immediately obeyed

While Binance had initially stated that BUSD was not a security and that it was ready to defend that stand in court, it is not clear what the future of BUSD is especially after Binance recently minted 50 million True USD stablecoins.

BUSD to be suspended on all Coinbase apps

According to the communication, Coinbase will suspend BUSD trading on March 13 starting at around 12PM ET.

The suspension will apply to Coinbase Pro, Coinbase Prime, Coinbase Exchange, and the simple and advanced versions of Coinbase .com. In the meantime, users will have access to their BUSD tokens and they can withdraw them.

The exchange said:

“Your BUSD funds will remain accessible to you, and you will continue to have the ability to withdraw your funds at any time.”

For any digital asset to be listed on Coinbase, it has to be voted for by the digital asset listing group. The voting process is informed by a rigorous vetting/review process that evaluates whether the assets are legal and comply with the technical security standards. There are also additional business assessments and continuous monitoring to ensure that the cryptocurrency continues to meet the set standards.

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