Kategorie: Crypto Markets

• SEC legal battle with Terraform Labs over TerraUSD collapse continues to unfold.
• Funds allegedly diverted from investors and creditors to an “opaque slush fund” for lawyers.
• Terraform Labs faces intensified scrutiny as the SEC challenges the allocation of resources.

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has raised objections to Terraform Labs’ allocation of a $166 million retainer to the law firm Dentons.

This development comes amidst an ongoing legal tussle between Terraform Labs and the SEC, stemming from the collapse of TerraUSD and the subsequent bankruptcy filing by Terraform Labs in January 2024.

Alleged fund diversion

The SEC contends that the substantial retainer payment to Dentons represents a diversion of funds that should rightfully be allocated to investors and creditors involved in Terraform’s bankruptcy proceedings. The commission has characterized this allocation as an attempt by Terraform Labs to establish an “opaque slush fund for its lawyers,” rather than addressing the financial obligations owed to stakeholders.

The SEC’s objections extend beyond the retainer payment, as it also disapproves of Terraform’s intention to engage Dentons for legal representation and cover litigation expenses for its employees. According to the SEC, this move by Terraform Labs may be construed as an effort to circumvent potential future judgments in the SEC’s lawsuit.

Legal battle and bankruptcy

Terraform Labs and its founder, Do Kwon, are currently embroiled in a legal battle with the SEC following the collapse of TerraUSD and the LUNA token in May 2022. The fallout from these events resulted in significant losses for investors, prompting Terraform Labs to file for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in Delaware.

The SEC’s stance underscores the contentious nature of the legal proceedings, with the commission asserting that diverted funds could have been utilized to provide restitution to investors and creditors affected by Terraform’s bankruptcy. Despite requests for comment from CoinDesk, neither Terraform Labs nor Dentons have immediately responded to the SEC’s objections.

As the legal dispute between Terraform Labs and the SEC unfolds, the allocation of significant financial resources to legal representation remains a point of contention. The SEC’s objections to Terraform’s $166 million retainer payment to Dentons highlight the complexities involved in navigating the aftermath of TerraUSD’s collapse and subsequent bankruptcy filing.

Moving forward, stakeholders will be closely monitoring developments in the legal proceedings, as the outcome could have far-reaching implications for Terraform Labs, its investors, and the broader cryptocurrency ecosystem. With the SEC’s scrutiny intensifying, Terraform Labs faces heightened pressure to address the allegations surrounding the allocation of funds and navigate the legal challenges ahead.

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• Bitcoin price hit highs of $64,100 on Coinbase, surging double-digits.
• BTC however fell sharply as Coinbase users reported issues with account balances.
• Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong noted the exchange had recorded a spike in traffic.

Bitcoin price crossed the $64,000 mark on Wednesday February 28, to hit its highest level since October 2021. The top cryptocurrency’s value rose more than 12% in the 24 hours to hit highs of $64,100 on Coinbase.

However, prices fell sharply to touch lows of $58k as $100 million in BTC liquidations hit the market in one hour. Over the past 24 hours, total liquidations across the crypto market reached over $630 million – with Coinglass data showing short sellers rekt for over $355 million and longs for $280 million.

The $6,000 dip happened as users reported problems with their Coinbase accounts – balances showed $0. Coinbase support did acknowledge the problem, noting that its team was investigating the matter.

We are aware that some users may see a zero balance across their Coinbase accounts & may experience errors in buying or selling. Our team is investigating this & will provide an update shortly. Your assets are safe.
You can track this incident at https://t.co/a3pl4WiDhZ

— Coinbase Support (@CoinbaseSupport) February 28, 2024

Coinbase founder and CEO Brian Armstrong acknowledged the surge in traffic the exchange was seeing.

We are dealing with a LARGE surge of traffic – apologies for any issues you encounter. The team is working to remediate.

— Brian Armstrong 🛡️ (@brian_armstrong) February 28, 2024

What next for Bitcoin?

BTC, which has jumped nearly 50% in the past 30 days, spiked to the multi-year high to come within 5% of its all-time high of $69,000. At today’s peak, Bitcoin had doubled from levels seen in October 2023 when it broke above the $30,000 level.

The momentum that carried bulls high this week has coincided with a massive influx of money into spot Bitcoin ETFs. The SEC’s approval of spot ETFs in January helped push BTC above $50k and the record volumes seen this week have added to the impetus.

Only this week, BlackRock’s IBIT recorded a staggering $1.3 billion in volume.  Today, the spot ETFs were up to $2.6 billion with just half the day of trading data in. Bloomberg ETF analyst Eric Balchunas shared this on X.

JEEZ: Only halfway through trading day and New Nine bitcoin ETFs have already broken their all time daily volume record w/ $2.6b. We got 4 btc ETFs in Top 20. $IBIT is #4 overall, it’s gonna trade more today than in its first two wks combined. This is officially a craze. pic.twitter.com/Wqez1rKrCg

— Eric Balchunas (@EricBalchunas) February 28, 2024

The market anticipates Bitcoin price may pull back ahead of the halving. Currently, Bitcoin is hovering around the $60k level.

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• Bitcoin price has spiked past $59k to see bulls target $60k.
• Pullix is seeing huge demand as it unveils a PLX bonus round.
• The price of Pullix could explode when the token lists for trading on Uniswap and BitMart in coming days.

The last 24 hours have seen the global cryptocurrency market cap rise a further 3.4% to hit $2.31 trillion, with Bitcoin (BTC) breaking above $59,000 amid signals of a parabolic run.

As the crypto market experiences fresh upside momentum, investors eyeing the potential windfall of returns from rallying altcoins have turned their attention to Pullix (PLX). The hybrid exchange platform has announced a bonus presale round after astronomical demand followed the initial close of PLX token sale.

BTC storms past $58k: What next as the crypto market cap hits $2.3 trillion?

A 5% spike in the price of Bitcoin pushed the benchmark cryptocurrency’s price to highs of $59,500 on Wednesday morning. The result was the bellwether’s market cap hitting $1.16 trillion, and the global crypto market cap rising to over $2.31 trillion.

With BTC price eyeing another leg above $59,000 – likely targeting the $60,000 level as support – analysts are suggesting the next major hurdle will be the all-time high reached in 2021.  The frenzy that has engulfed the spot Bitcoin ETF market and the coming halving are seen as key bullish catalysts.

While potential pullback scenarios are likely to crop up amid profit taking, the wash out of weak hands might fuel the next vertical move. Retail not being fully at the helm of the current momentum suggests the run to a new ATH in 2024 will be massive.

According to crypto analyst Michael van de Poppe, Bitcoin’s run since the lows after the FTX implosion has been remarkable. But there’s more coming – an epic bull run.

Pullix announces bonus sale round

On February 27, Pullix announced it was unlocking 10 million more PLX for a bonus buy round. The platform is now offering investors a chance to grab PLX before the token lists for trading on Uniswap on March 4, 2024.

Additionally, the exchange will reveal the PLX Launch Price to the community on the same day, with BitMart listing set for March 7. Ahead of these key dates, the chance to position with what could be a breakout project in the crypto trading landscape remains open.

Investors will find it attractive that in this bonus round, the price of PLX is still the heavily discounted $0.14 per token. 

Details on the Pullix presale page show investors have already grabbed over 2.4 million of the 10 million PLX bonus sale. 

With the highly anticipated market debut coming on March 4, how is the price outlook for this token that could rally hard amid outperformances for DeFi and meme coins?

Pullix price outlook ahead of PLX launch

With Pullix primed to introduce its hybrid exchange model, the best of decentralized (DEX) and centralized exchange (CEX) is coming to the crypto trading space.

A solution to the DeFi problem of liquidity and a compelling platform that brings crypto, stocks and commodities to the market stand out for Pullix. 

On top of this is a non-custodial approach that means users retain full control of their assets, and a revenue-sharing model that guarantees a share of exchange revenue for traders. Other opportunities for income streams include staking and yield farming.

Combined, these aspects make the current $0.14 per PLX a massive bargain. While the listing price is yet undetermined, its likely Pullix price will explode when it launches on Uniswap and BitMart in about a week.

A bullish outlook for the broader market, particularly with Bitcoin eyeing a major run suggests PLX could be the next 100x token.

More details on how to buy are on the presale page.

The post Bitcoin breaks $59k as explosive presale puts Pullix on investors’ radar appeared first on CoinJournal.

• Validation Cloud announced it secured $5.8 million in a funding round led by Cadenza Ventures.
• The Switzerland-based company will use the funding to accelerate adoption of its infrastructure to help with enterprise adoption of Web3.

Validation Cloud, a Switzerland-based Web3 data streaming and infrastructure firm, has secured $5.8 million in a funding round led by Cadenza Ventures.

This is Validation Cloud’s first external financing round and funds raised will go towards promoting global enterprise adoption of Web3.

According to details in a press release, the oversubscribed round also attracted the participation of prominent global venture firms, including Blockchain Founders Fund, Blockwall, Bloccelerate, Side Door Ventures, GS Futures, Metamatic and AP Capital.

Validation Cloud to help Web3 enterprise adoption

Zug-based Validation Cloud is one of the leading providers of high performance, scalable products in staking, node and data to clients across the globe.

The company’s team include pioneers in proof-of-stake, validation cloud who have built for global industry giants such as Uber, Deloitte, Morgan Stanley and Citadel. Other major companies include Binance, Workday, Crypto.com and R3.

Describing itself as a talent-first company, Validation Cloud has employees across the world. Its operations include providing infrastructure support to companies and platforms in their early stages of development.

Alex Nwaka, the co-founder of Validation Cloud, noted in a statement that scalable and compliant infrastructure is needed to help “onboard the influx of enterprises embracing Web3.” 

The partnership with global investors accelerates the adoption of Validation Cloud’s suite of products by networks, builders, and asset managers, he added.

Kumar Dandapani, managing partner at Cadenza, commented:

“At Cadenza, we do not invest in just any company; we invest in the future of transformative technologies. Validation Cloud’s pioneering role in Proof-of-Stake and their relentless pursuit of next-generation Web3 infrastructure have set them apart as leaders in the Web3 space.”

“Cadenza is proud to lead this round and support Validation Cloud’s mission to bridge the gap between traditional enterprises and the expansive power of Web3,” Dandapani added.

Validation Cloud has partnered with established blockchain networks such as Chainlink, Stellar and Hedera, as well the emerging Aptos, Eigenlayer, and Berachain.

The post Validation Cloud raises $5.8M to power enterprise adoption of Web3 appeared first on CoinJournal.

Key takeaways

• BlackRock’s spot Bitcoin ETF achieved a trading volume of $1.3 billion for the second consecutive day.

• BTC touched $57k as Bitbot’s presale approaches $750k

BlackRock’s IBIT trading volume soars higher

Bitcoin has been performing excellently since the start of the week, thanks to BlackRock’s IBIT and other spot Bitcoin ETFs. 

BlackRock’s IBIT recorded a trading volume of $1.3 billion for the second consecutive day. The ETF recorded a trading volume of $1.35 billion on Tuesday, surpassing the $1.3 billion reported on Monday. 

The positive performance also means that BlackRock’s IBIT was the fifth most traded among all U.S.-listed ETFs during the morning hours. The record numbers from spot Bitcoin ETFs continue to show an increasing appetite for Bitcoin by institutional investors.

The rising trading volume could also spill into the crypto market and this is where projects like Bitbot could offer excellent use cases to traders and investors. 

What is Bitbot?

To understand its value proposition to traders, we first have to know what Bitbot is and what it offers. 

Bitbot is a Web3 project that seeks to provide excellent services to cryptocurrency traders. It is a Telegram trading bot that allows traders to gain access to some exciting features that would help them with their cryptocurrency trading journey. 

What makes Bitbot unique is that it is a self-custodial trading bot that enables users to trade via their cold wallets on Telegram. The project is leveraging Telegram’s position as a leading social media platform for crypto users.

The team explained that the Bitbot tool will come with several high-end features designed to help traders grow their trading features. These features are usually available for institutional investors but, Bitbot will make it easy for retail traders to use. 

As the trading volume in the crypto market rises, Bitbot will seek to gain massive adoption in the market. Bitbot could provide services to retail and institutional traders in the cryptocurrency market. 

Bitbot’s unique trading features

Bitbot is a Telegram trading tool that will focus on offering tech-savvy features to ease the trading process for users. Per their whitepaper, the development team is working on some features to help traders grow their trading portfolios. 

Bitbot will focus primarily on security. It will leverage the Knightsafe feature to offer a self-custody solution, mitigating the typical risks associated with Telegram trading. Furthermore, Bitbot is also working on deploying its anti-MEV and anti-rug solutions for users to protect their assets. With these features, traders can protect themselves from bots artificially pumping transaction costs and block scam projects.

In addition, Bitbot will integrate an ultra-flexible wallet management powered by non-custodial API technology to provide an added layer of security.

To help new traders navigate the market and gain expertise, Bitbot will also launch a copy trading feature. This feature allows novice traders to copy the trades of the strongest-performing wallets based on on-chain activities.

Bitbot’s presale approaches $750k

The Bitbot presale is progressing excellently and it is currently in its fourth stage. So far, Bitbot has raised $736k of the required $862 for this stage. 

The growing funding rate shows that Bitbot is attracting interest from investors. Currently, the $BITBOT token is going for $0.0116 but is set to increase to $0.0122 once the fifth round commences.

In its whitepaper, the Bitbot development team clarified that they would hold 20% of the total token supply and would use it to fund ongoing development. Furthermore, 14% of the total token supply is allocated to marketing & CEX listings. Also, another 3% is allocated to exchange liquidity provision.

Click here to read more about Bitbot’s upcoming presale.

Could Bitbot’s token soar higher after presale?

Traditionally, cryptocurrency prices tend to soar higher after presale, after getting listed on cryptocurrency exchanges. So far, Bitbot’s presale is going excellently and its token could rally higher once it gets listed on CEX and DEXs.

With the right level of adoption, Bitbot could be one of the biggest winners in this bull cycle. The project could take advantage of the rising trading volume spurred by the Bitcoin halving and other external factors in the market. 

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