“Crypto is dead in America,” tech investor Chamath Palihapitiya says

  • Chamath Palihapitiya, a top tech investor and crypto bull, says regulators have killed crypto in the United States.
  • He notes that regulators have their guns trained at crypto, highlighting regulatory uncertainty and the crackdown on crypto companies. 
  • Palihapitiya said in 2021 that Bitcoin had replaced gold, predicting that BTC would rise to $200,000.

Tech billionaire Chamath Palihapitiya, a long time bitcoin bull who once predicted the price of the flagship cryptocurrency will rise to $200,000, saying BTC had replaced gold, has commented on the state of the crypto industry in the United States.

He says the regulatory uncertainty has killed the crypto innovation in the country.

Crypto dead in the US thanks to regulators

In comments shared via an episode on the All-In podcast, Palihapitiya warned that “crypto is dead in America.” 

The venture investor’s remarks came a few days after the crypto industry largely criticized the overall outlook of the crypto regulation in the US following SEC Chair Gary Gensler’s appearance during a congressional hearing.

According to Palihapitiya, regulators are largely to blame for crypto’s demise in the country, highlighting Gensler’s comments that appeared to connect crypto to Silicon Valley Bank’s collapse. Blaming the recent banking crisis on the crypto sector was the US authorities having their guns firmly pointed at crypto, the investor said.

US regulators have over the past few months tightened their crackdown on crypto, with crypto exchanges Coinbase, Kraken, Bittrex among those targeted.

While Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong recently said the company could relocate if the regulatory environement did not improve, Bittrex plans to wind down its US operations following the SEC charges citing regulatory uncertainty. 

Coinbase also sued the SEC on Monday with the complaint against the agency relating to a rule making petition the exchange filed in July 2022.

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Bitget Token price surges after Bitfinex lists BGB

  • The price of Bitget Token (BGB) rose nearly 10% on Monday after Bitfinex announced the token’s listing.
  • BGB is the native utility and governance token on crypto derivatives platform Bitget.
  • Bitfinex will open deposits for the token on 25 April 2023 at 10 AM UTC, with trading going live on 27 April 2023.

Bitget Token (BGB) price has surged amid news that major cryptocurrency exchange Bitfinex will be listing the token on its platform. 

BGB price traded to a high of $0.41 on Monday, with the 9% gains at the time of writing also reflected in the jump in Bitget Token’s daily trading volume. The gains means BGB price is now just 21% off the all-time high above $0.51 reached on 16 February, 2023.

Bitfinex to list Bitget’s BGB

BGB is an ERC-20 token that works as a governance token on Bitget and users require it to access and utilize services on the derivatives platform. BGB holders can also stake their tokens and benefit from rewards and discounts, with zero withdrawal fees for staked BGB.

The token is ranked 83 by market cap (currently at $567 million) on CoinGecko and has a circulating supply of 1.4 billion BGB. 

On 24 April, 2023  Bitfinex announced that it would be listing BGB, the native token of Bitget, a top crypto derivatives exchange. The listing put BGB tokens on one of the best crypto exchanges, and the largest one to list the token. Trading on Bitfinex will increase BGB’s liquidity as well as visibility, probably adding to demand.

Deposits for BGB will open on Bitfinex on 25 April 2023 at 10 AM UTC while trading will commence on 27 Apri 2023 around 10 AM UTC. The token’s initial trading pairs are set to be BGB/USD and BGB/USDT.

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Crypto price prediction: MATIC, FLOKI and DIONE

  • Polygon (MATIC) price has a robust support base at around $0.918.
  • FLOKI price could rise further as the memecoin begins trading on Binance.US.
  • Dione (DIONE) price hit a new all-time high on 24 April 2023 and could make new upward moves amid price discovery.

Bitcoin (BTC) price began Monday with bulls battling to hold onto recent gains above the $27k level, with analysts predicting the benchmark cryptocurrency risks a retest of support at $26,500.  With the gains made following the rally to $31k over the past few days quickly evaporating, traders could look for potential trades in the altcoin market.

But what is likely to happen if markets continue to dump? Here is a crypto price prediction outlook for Polygon (MATIC) Floki (FLOKI) and Dione (DIONE).

MATIC price prediction: Polygon major support at $0.91

The price of Polygon (MATIC) dipped below $1 on Monday as selling pressure for the 10th ranked crypto by market cap saw 140 million MATIC transferred to crypto exchange Binance. Whale Alert highligted one such transaction.

MATIC price also fell as total liquidations for crypto rose 107% to over $89 million in 24 hours, with about $744,000 of this for Polygon.

While MATIC/USD has moved back to near $1 at the time of writing, on-chain data suggests robust support lies around $0.918. A dip to these levels is possible, although a sentiment flip at this major demand reload zone will aid MATIC’s new bullish momentum.

Market data and intelligence platform IntoTheBlock shared the details below about Polygon’s on-chain activity.

“MATIC is back under $1. Let’s take a look at the on-chain activity: 32.56k addresses purchased MATIC at an average price of $0.918. This suggests that if prices return to those levels, investor interest may pick up once again.”

FLOKI price prediction: Floki rips as Binance.US lists FLOKI

FLOKI (FLOKI) price was up more than 33% at the time of writing, trading around $0.000038 as intraday trading volume jumped over 500% to $56 million.

Amid the sharp rise in FLOKI price and market activity has been a major Floki news development. On Monday, crypto exchange Binance.US opened deposits for FLOKI ahead of trading on Tuesday. The reaction to the news was FLOKI price jumping towards highs seen on 17 April 2023.

FLOKI deposits are now open on the Binance.US exchange, with trading in the FLOKI/USD and FLOKI/USDT pairs set to begin on 25 April 2023 at 12:00 pm UTC.

As for FLOKI price prediction, the $0.000040 area remains a major resistance zone. Breaking past this could see buyers target February highs. The road to the long term target of $0.1 remains tough given price is 88% off the all-time high of $0.00033 reached on 4 November, 2021.

Dione price prediction: DIONE hits new all-time high

Dione is a L1 blockchain in development and designed to enable renewable energy trade. The coin is developed by top crypto minds and is tapping into Starlink technology to help increase decentralistion of blockchain nodes.

Dione (DIONE) is trading around $0.0045 as of 12.50 pm ET on Monday 24 April 2023, the price being about 4% up in the last 24 hours. DIONE/USD is up nearly 300% in the past month and 78% in the past seven days.

However, DIONE has retreated roughly 14% from its all-time high above $0.0052 hit earlier today.

Dione has recorded a daily trading volume of over $1 million in the past 24 hours, with a rise in market activity represented by the 289% increase in daily volume. DIONE price is likely to continue in price discovery mode, with possible moves to $0.01 in coming weeks. 

On the flipside, profit taking deals can see sellers push DIONE/USD back to February lows.

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Zimbabwe to issue gold-backed digital currency to save local currency

  • The Zimbabwe dollar has been depreciating against the US dollar.
  • The country has been struggling with inflation for more than a decade now.
  • The Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe (RBZ) has announced plans to launch a gold-backed digital currency.

While countries work on central bank digital currencies (CBDCs) and others like El Salvador embrace Bitcoin as their legal tender, Zimbabwe has announced a plan to launch a gold-backed digital currency.

The Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe (RBZ) towards the end of last week announced that it was working on a gold-backed digital currency that will become legal tender in the country. The move is part of the Zimbabwean government’s strategy to keep the local currency from depreciating further against the US dollar.

Hedging against currency instability

According to reports from local media, the gold-backed digital currency will allow the Zimbamweans to trade tiny sums of Zimbabwean dollars for the digital gold token. This will allow Zimbabweans to hedge against their local currency instability.

According to the governor of the Reserve Bank, John Mangudya, the objective of the digital currency is to “leave no one and no place behind.” The governor however added that they expect the “parallel market currency rate to stabilize once tobacco growers receive their payments in USD in the coming weeks.”

Mangudya claims that the current Zimbabwean dollar exchange rate volatility is a result of expectations of increased foreign currency supply in the market because of the tobacco season. Currently, the Zimbabwean dollar is trading at 1,001 ZWL per $1 and is routinely traded at 1,750 ZWL per $1 on the streets of the national capital, Harare.

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DAI whales have added 6.4% of stablecoin’s supply since mid-March

  • DAI stablecoin holders are adding to positions as crypto prices range.
  • Addresses with 100k-10 million DAI added 6.4% of supply in the past six weeks. 
  • The overall holdings for this cohort had dropped significantly as Bitcoin and Ethereum prices pumped in mid-March, Santiment data shows.

On-chain data shows large investors, the sharks and whale addresses with $100,000 to $10,000,000 worth of DAI have recently added to their positions. Addresses with 100,000-1 million DAI hold over 13% of supply while those with 1 million- 10 million DAI currently hold over 25% of supply.

Whales buy DAI stablecoin as markets range

As the crypto markets see fresh volatility, market data provider Santiment has highlighted that after the rotation that followed Bitcoin and Ethereum prices pumping in mid-March, sharks and whales have added 6.4% of DAI.

Even with crypto markets rollercoastering in April, top stablecoins like $DAI are being accumulated by sharks & whales. Since $DAI was exchanged for pumping $BTC & $ETH in mid-March, $100k-$10m DAI addresses have added 6.4% of the supply back since,” Santiment noted.

As of 23 April 2023, addresses with $100k- $1 million in DAI held 13.43% of the stablecoin’s supply, while addresses with $1 million-$10 million of DAI held about 25.53% of current supply. These cohorts have increased their buying power since their holdings bottomed out around mid-March, on-chain data showed.

The chart below that Santiment shared on Twitter indicates the above scenario.

Dai stablecoin whale and sharks holdings. Chart courtesy of Santiment on Twitter 

What is Dai (DAI)?

DAI is the native stablecoin for major lending protocol Maker, whose governance token MKR currently trades around $688. Dai is the first decentralised, crypto-collateralised stablecoin, with its value pegged 1:1 to the US Dollar.

One of the benefits of Dai is with its use in mitigating price volatility in a crypto market where digital asset prices can swing wildly at any given time.  The token is also highly composable with dApps, including DeFi industry’s leading projects Uniswap and Compound.

What does whales’ buying of DAI mean for crypto prices?

Typically, large whale transactions involving stablecoins has preceded major accumulation of crypto tokens such as Bitcoin and Ethereum. This is so because buying of stablecoins such as DAI, Tether and USD Coin have usually indicated whales positioning of money in readiness for buying.

BTC and ETH prices have recently retreated from highs above $31k and $2.1k respectively as those who bought at the top seemingly sell.

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