Monat: Juli 2023

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Hester Peirce criticizes SEC’s warning to accounting firms working with crypto

SEC Commissioner Hester Peirce says SEC’s warning to accounting firms could discourage “good-faith efforts” towards transparency.

Paul Munter, the Chief Accountant at SEC, cautioned that crypto platforms are likely to misrepresent non-audit work as full audit.

SEC Commissioner Hester Peirce has criticized a recent statement by the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) directed towards accounting firms engaged in proof of reserves “audits” and other accounting related work.

SEC’s take on crypto “audit” reports

In particular, Peirce took issue with the warning published on July 27 by Paul Munter, the Chief Accountant in the SEC’s Office of the Chief Accountant (OCA). Munter had cautioned that accounting firms working with cryptocurrency should be wary of the “potential pitfalls’ related to the assurance work these firms undertake for crypto companies – particularly crypto trading platforms.

According to OCA, it is possible for crypto firms to take the non-audit work presented by accounting providers and offer it to customers and the public as audits. The SEC’s chief accountant noted:

“Certain crypto asset trading platforms, with others in the crypto industry, have marketed to investors their retention of third parties, sometimes accounting firms, to perform some sort of review of certain parts of their business, often presented as a purported “audit.””

Munter noted that suggestions to the effect that “non-audit arrangements are at parity with, or even more “precise” than, a financial statement audit,” were false.

According to Munter, any accounting firm that finds itself at odds with their crypto client over misrepresentations related to non-audit work, has to make this known to the public. They can also report this to the SEC, he added.

Peirce acknowledges the need for crypto exchanges and accounting partners must strive for clarity and transparency when it comes to their proof of reserves reports. 

However, she is not supportive of the warning by the OCA. Discouraging this cooperation could mean mainstream accounting and audit firms keep off crypto – likely to the detriment of consumers.

“Crypto platforms [and] their accountants should be clear about what proof of reserves is and isn’t & customers should understand the limitations, but why would we want to discourage good-faith efforts to provide more transparency?” she argued.

The post Hester Peirce criticizes SEC’s warning to accounting firms working with crypto appeared first on CoinJournal.

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Casper (CSPR) price prediction: Still up to bulls?

  • Casper price is down 2% in the past 24 hours, action that mirrors broader market sentiment.
  • CSPR rose to $0.063 in April.
  • The technical picture signals continued strength despite the latest dip.

CSPR, the native governance token of Casper Network, is down 2% in the past 24 hours and up roughly 1.5% in the past week. According to CoinGecko, 30-day gains stand at around 3.2% as of July 29 at 11 am ET, with CSPR changing hands near $0.039.

The daily trading volume has fallen by about 36% in the past 24 hours to suggest reduced network activity, data shows. Given these details, what’s the price outlook of Casper’s native token?

CRPR price outlook: key developments

Casper is an L1 proof-of-stake blockchain based on Correct-By-Construction (CBC) consensus specification and targeted for institutional and enterprise clients.

From a broader crypto market perspective, Casper’s price performance over the month aligns with recent struggles for mega caps. Bitcoin has found it difficult to break above $30k and currently hovers near $29.3k, while Ethereum’s attempts to reclaim $1,900 have been rejected multiple times.

Even XRP, which outperformed the top altcoins by a big margin after Ripple’s win against the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), has pared more than half the gains seen on July 13 when it soared over 100%. XRP is down 8% in the past seven days.

As noted, Casper has traded lower in recent days. However, with sentiment across the industry largely bullish, a return to key levels is likely to catalyse more gains for hodlers. The blockchain platform’s growth metrics remain positive, particularly after a recent partnership with US-based regulated broker-dealer INX. 

The collaboration will see Casper Labs’ equity tokenized and listed for trading on secondary markets. The firm expects this to be rolled out in September 2023. Other notable events are the recent announcements around update to the Casper Wallet and integration with fiat-to-crypto onramp Topper.

Investors are buoyed by the developments, which could see more adoption and demand for CSPR and potentially boost its price.

CSPR price – technical outlook

As the chart below shows, the technical outlook for CSPR suggests bulls still have the upper hand. Buyers are likely to seize control if prices break above the resistance area marked by the trendline (red). 

Casper Network price chart showing CSPR performance on the daily chart. Source: TradingView

The daily RSI is supportive of this as it holds the trajectory seen following the CSPR/USD breakout on July 21. The MACD indicator is also highlighting growing strength.

If price holds above the 50-day EMA, it could continue towards $0.046 and the primary hurdle at $0.053. Above this is the year-to-date highs of $0.063 reached in April.

On the downside, the main support level lies around $0.035.

The post Casper (CSPR) price prediction: Still up to bulls? appeared first on CoinJournal.

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ADA/USD price forecast following the Fed’s July interest rate decision

  • Fed’s July decision did not impact the cryptocurrency market
  • Despite rallying in 2023, ADA/USD dipped below the 2022 lows
  • A double bottom pattern might be in place, and a move above $0.55 would confirm the reversal pattern

Three central banks announced their interest rate decisions this week, and the Federal Reserve was one of them. For those trading cryptocurrencies denominated in US dollars, the Fed’s decision marked one of the most important events of the summer. 

Following the decision to “skip” a rate hike in June, the Fed signaled that it would hike the rates in July, despite the clear improvements in the fight against inflation. Accordingly, the market priced in a rate hike, and the Fed delivered. 

As such, all the attention was on what the Fed will signal moving forward – more tightening or the fact that it had reached the terminal rate? Every detail was important for the US dollar as its volatility directly impacts cryptocurrency traders. 

As it turned out, the Fed did hike the funds rate by another 25 basis points and did not signal that the current cycle ended. Therefore, the outcome of the Fed’s meeting might be viewed as hawkish for the US dollar, and so, it is no wonder that the cryptocurrency market continued its consolidation and experienced less volatility following the Fed meeting than the traditional currency market. 

Cardano chart by TradingView

ADA/USD unable to break above horizontal resistance

Cardano (ADA) rallied in 2023 as Bitcoin and other major cryptocurrencies bounced from their 2022 lows. In doing so, the market met little or no resistance until the $0.4 area. This is an area where ADA/USD found support in the past, and now support turned into resistance.

For several months now, ADA/USD was not able to break and hold above resistance – every time sellers emerged. So heavy was the selling pressure that the market even dropped below the 2022 lows. 

Naturally, this week’s Fed decision was important because it might be that ADA/USD formed a double bottom with the last attempt to the lows. While the Fed’s decision did not trigger a lower dollar, the bias remains somehow bullish for ADA/USD because of the possible double bottom. 

Therefore, if ADA/USD climbs above $0.4, more buyers might step in to trade the pattern’s measured move, seen in orange above. It points to $0.55, and on such a market move, the bearish bias might finally be left behind. 

The post ADA/USD price forecast following the Fed’s July interest rate decision appeared first on CoinJournal.

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Shiba Inu whales accumulated a staggering 1 trillion SHIB in 8 weeks

  • Shiba Inu wallet addresses with 10 million to 100 billion added 1.11 trillion SHIB since June 4.
  • The increased whale activity comes amid bullish sentiment for Shiba Inu ahead of its Shibarium launch.
  • SHIB price was slightly higher on Saturday, trading around $0.00000830.

Shiba Inu is among altcoins to see a significant surge in their prices over the past week, with the meme coin largely benefitting from whale activity.

According to on-chain data from market intelligence platform Santiment, large holders have accumulated staggering amounts of SHIB since early June.  This spike in whale activity comes ahead of a highly anticipated Shiba Inu ecosystem event – the launch of the layer-2 solution Shibarium.

While only testnet access is available for now, the huge anticipation surrounding Shibarium is one of the factors driving interest in the meme coin.

Shiba Inu whales gorge on SHIB

As Santiment shared on Friday, large Shina Inu wallets in the category of “sharks” and “dolphins” have added more than $9 million worth of SHIB over the past two or so months.

Indeed, on-chain data indicates addresses with 10 million to 100 billion SHIB have accumulated 1.11 trillion of the meme token since June 4. The total SHIB holdings in the hands of these large investors stood at $32.49 trillion on Friday, July 28. In total, this group holds roughly $266 million worth of SHIB.

Here’s Santiment’s chart showing the increased SHIB accumulation by 10 million to 100 billion address cohort.

SHIB price outlook

SHIB traded at $0.00000830 on Saturday afternoon, about 2% up in the past 24 hours after paring gains seen when it reached intraday highs of $0.00000840 across major exchanges.

CoinGecko ranks Shiba Inu the 15th largest cryptocurrency by market cap, with this at over $4.9 billion at the time of writing.

The post Shiba Inu whales accumulated a staggering 1 trillion SHIB in 8 weeks appeared first on CoinJournal.