Origin Protocol’s OGN spikes 28% as Bitcoin taps $29.3k

  • Origin Protocol price rose to $0.12 as bulls gained by 28% to lead top altcoin gainers.
  • Elsewhere, Bitcoin price reached $29,328 as markets awaited Fed’s 25 bps rate hike.

The price of Origin Protocol’s native token OGN soared 28% to above $0.12 as a number of altcoins spiked ahead of Wednesday’s rate hike by the Fed. As markets awaited the 25 basis point interest rate jump by the US Federal Reserve, Bitcoin rose to $29,328 across major exchanges.

OGN had traded to lows of $0.10 earlier in the day, but the gains put its value 50% in the green to see it lead the likes of Compound (COMP), Convex Finance (CVX) and Solana (SOL).

Why is OGN price rallying today?

Most cryptocurrencies have seen uneventful action over the past 24 hours, and OGN’s performance amid this broader lull is somewhat of an outlier. 

However, while there’s hasn’t been a particular Origin Protocol event or news to trigger the massive gains, it appears today’s rally found legs on the back of increased interest in Ethereum liquid staking.

As staked ETH volumes have spiked since Ethereum’s Shapella upgrade, so has a new subsector liquid staking token finance (LSTfi). 

One of the leading platforms for this has been Origin Ether (OETH). The protocol offers a liquid staking yield aggregator that has seen its total value locked (TVL) surpass $84 million within two months of its debut in the market.

Origin Ether has integrated with multiple DeFi dApps, including Lido, Rocket Pool, and Frax. This has added to its access across wallets, DEXs, yield farms and analytics pages.

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Bank of Italy leverage Polygon to help institutions experiment with DeFi

Key takeaways

  • The Bank of Italy will use the Polygon blockchain to help institutions experiment with DeFi and asset tokenisation.

  • The Bank will also use crypto custodian Fireblocks. 

The Bank of Italy to help institutions experiment with DeFi

The Bank of Italy’s innovation hub has partnered with Polygon Labs and crypto custodian Fireblocks to help financial institutions experiment with decentralised finance (DeFi) and asset tokenisation. 

The apex bank’s Milano Hub will support the development of EeFi for Security Token ecosystem over the next six months. 

The platform is designed to make it easier for traditional financial institutions to experiment with asset tokenisation while also executing transactions using DeFi in a regulated manner. 

This latest cryptocurrency news comes as the Italian central bank joins other apex banks globally to work on CBDCs (central bank digital currencies). The bank is also working on various ways to integrate blockchain technology into the existing financial system. 

According to the Bank of Italy, Cetif Advisory, a consultancy spinoff of the Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore of Milan’s Cetif Research Centre, will be in charge of the platform’s development. 

Polygon Labs, Fireblocks, tech developer Reply, legal and tax consultant Linklaters and web3 studio DVRS will help Cetif Advisory in developing the platform. 

While commenting on this development, Imanuel Baharier, general manager of Cetif Advisory, said;

“We believe it is vitally important to create the conditions for DeFi to become a safe and open operating environment for supervised entities as well.”

Asset tokenisation has become a key area of the cryptocurrency space. It allows traditional financial institutions and digital asset firms to tokenise assets like equities and bonds on blockchains. 

Asset tokenisation is gaining adoption

Asset tokenisation serves as a way for some TradFi companies to leverage blockchain technology. Market experts believe that tokenisation could change how people transfer value and also help investors store value across numerous industries. 

With asset tokenisation, transactions could become faster while the costs of the transactions could become cheaper. Thus, creating a more efficient global financial ecosystem. 

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Bitcoin Cash (BCH) price forms a falling wedge: Is it safe to buy?

  • Bitcoin Cash price has formed a falling wedge pattern on the 4H chart.

  • Focus shifts to the upcoming interest rate decision by the Fed.

Bitcoin Cash price has retreated in the past few weeks as the recent momentum in the crypto industry waned. The coin dropped to a low of $240 on Wednesday, much lower than the year-to-date high of $329. This means that BCH has dropped by more than 27% from the highest point this year. 

Fed interest rate decision ahead

Bitcoin Cash price has been in a strong downward trend in the past few weeks. This trend started on June 30th when the coin soared to a high of $329. It also mirrors the performance of other major cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin, Ethereum, and Litecoin.

The next likely catalyst for Bitcoin Cash and other cryptocurrencies will be the upcoming interest rate decision by the Federal Reserve. Economists believe that the bank will decide to hike interest rates by 0.25%. It will also signal that this will be the final rate hike this year since inflation is falling at a faster pace than expected.

Data published earlier this month showed that the American consumer price index (CPI) dropped from 4.1% in May to 3% in June. Inflation has been falling after peaking at 9.1% in 2021. Therefore, another bearish rate hike will be a positive thing for cryptocurrencies.

Meanwhile, data showed by Coinglass shows that open interest in the futures market has dropped by more than 1.45% in the past 24 hours. Open interest dropped to $317 million with most of it being in Binance, OKX, Bybit, Bitget, and dYdX. Binance has over $167 million while OKX has $58.9 million.

Bitcoin Cash’s open interest peaked at over $541 million after the Ripple vs SEC lawsuit. It has dropped continually to the current $317 million, as shown below.

Bitcoin Cash price prediction

The 4H chart shows that the BCH price has been in a strong bearish trend in the past few days. It has moved below the 25-period and 50-period moving averages. However, a closer look shows that the coin has formed a falling wedge pattern, which is usually a bullish sign. 

Most importantly, this pattern is nearing the confluence level, signaling that a bullish breakout is possible. If this happens, the next level to watch will be at $280. A break below the support at $220 will invalidate the bullish view.

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Chancer presale catches the eye as Fed resumes rate hikes

  • Fed is expected to announce a 0.25% rate hike after its two-day meeting on Wednesday.
  • Stocks and cyptocurrencies have traded largely flat or lower amid investor anxiety over next moves by the central bank.
  • Chancer, a project set to revolutionise the betting industry, could be a huge investment opportunity in today’s market setup.

The Federal Reserve paused its interest rate hike in June, but all indications have been that the US central bank will resume the hiking path with a 0.25% rate this week.

As cryptocurrencies and stocks struggled amid the expected decision, one new project has stood out for the relentless interest it has seen from investors. That’s Chancer (CHANCER).

Fed to resume rate hikes after June pause

Chancer, a cryptocurrency project for the betting industry that’s currently in presale, is close to hitting the $1 million mark in funds raised so far.

The Fed’s 25 basis point hike is set to bring to the number of rate hikes since 2022 to 11 and will see the fed funds rate now at 5.25%-5.50%. This will bring the benchmark interest rate to a 22-year high – and trader sentiment on this sees major US indices down ahead of markets opening on Wednesday.

With crypto also down and Fed Chair Jay Powell anticipated to hint at additional rate increases for 2023, could investing in Chancer offer a better way to diversify a portfolio? Here’s a brief overview of this project.

What is Chancer?

Chancer is a new blockchain platform targeted at revolutionizing the predictive markets. Simply put, this is a project that could disrupt the global betting market as it is today.

The platform comes in the form of a peer-to-peer (P2P) marketplace that promises to seize control over from centralised bookmakers and hand it to individual users. With Chancer, you can bet on any event and from anywhere.

Chancer’s whitepaper indicates the platform will leverage blockchain technology and smart contracts to democratize betting and empower bettors as it evolves into the world’s largest social predictive market.

While people will be able to tap into Chancer to create bets, set odds and handle payouts, the team envisions this as being more than just a new betting platform.

$CHANCER presale close to $1M milestone

Chancer has so far raised more than $990,000 in its presale, with the 12 stage token sale paving the way for the launch of what could be the most anticipated blockchain projects.

65% of the total supply of 1.5 billion $CHANCER is available for presale buyers. According to details on the Chancer website, 518 million are available for presale on BSC, while 443 million tokens are on ETH presale. Another 443 million will be locked up in a bridge.

Buying options during the presale include BNB, ETH, USDT and BUSD. Currently, early investors can buy $CHANCER at $0.011. The price during this token sale will increase at each subsequent stage until it hits $0.021. All purchased tokens will be distributed once the presale closes.

Buy $CHANCER here.

Is Chancer a good investment opportunity?

Investors eyeing $CHANCER might want to know more about its tokenomics and what other aspects offer a compelling case for a buy scenario.

Chancer might not only redefine the global betting industry, it will do so while offering investors multiple opportunities for yield from their early calls.

One reason why buying Chancer today could be a great deal is what has been highlighted above – the massive potential that this project has in terms of disrupting the global betting industry. Also notable could be that $CHANCER is a cryptocurrency expected to power this vast P2P platform, and that both crypto markets and the betting space are projected to see significant growth and adoption in the next decade or so.

$CHANCER token could thus see continued price appreciation after the presale, particularly if the platform delivers on its highly anticipated mainnet in early 2024.

Can you earn $CHANCER tokens on Chancer?

Apart from using technologies such as WebRTC to live stream bet events and compete with anyone from across the globe (in real-time), Chancer is set to offer passive earning avenues for token holders.

This will include staking where holders earn for providing liquidity and making it possible for other participants to enter and exit positions.

Overall demand for the token amid greater adoption could also buoy price potential. Also key to the investment could be the launch of the platform as a decentralised autonomous organisation (DAO). Token holders will have a greater say in the platform’s development direction and like shareholders, get value from their money.

Users will also benefit from a loyalty program where the protocol will reimburse a percentage of the transaction fees to $CHANCER holders.

Join Chancer’s presale using this link.

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Singapore High Court rules crypto not different from fiat money or shells

  • Cryptocurrencies will now be viewed as property in Singapore.
  • The high court also demystified the notion that cryptocurrencies do not hold any value.
  • The Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) will implement segregation and custody requirements for digital payment tokens.

According to a ruling made on July 25 by Judge Philip Jeyaretnam of the High Court of Singapore, cryptocurrency is considered property that can be held in trust. The judge stated that as long as all of those objects, whether physical or not, share value that is created by a shared faith in it, he did not see any distinction between cryptocurrencies, fiat currency, or shells.

Judge Jeyaretnam pronounced himself in a case brought by ByBit against its former employee, Ho Kai Xin. According to ByBit, the employee transferred about 4.2 million Tether (USDT) from the cryptocurrency exchange to her personal accounts. He has been claiming that a distant cousin is in charge of the pertinent accounts, and the court has now ordered him to return all of the money to ByBit.

The legal standing of digital assets in Singapore

Even though the ruling may appear obvious, it contains some formulations that are crucial for the legal standing of digital assets. The stolen USDT and all cryptocurrencies are considered property by Judge Jeyaretnam.

Despite their lack of physical presence, the Judge is of the opinion that:

“We identify what is going on as a particular digital token, somewhat like how we give a name to a river even though the water contained within its banks is constantly changing.”

The judge also corrected the widespread belief that cryptocurrency lacks “real” value by pointing out that value is “a judgement made by an aggregate of human minds.” Cryptography was categorised by Jeyaretnam as one of the “things in action.”

The Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS), which will implement segregation and custody requirements for digital payment tokens, was cited by the judge in support of his ruling. The Judge points out that it should be legally possible to hold such digital assets on trust if it is practical to identify and separate them.

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