Hedera (HBAR) hits major milestone with 20 Billion transactions

  • Hedera (HBAR) has hit a record 20 billion mainnet transactions.
  • HBAR price rose slightly on Tuesday. However it remains in a long-term downward trend at around $0.049

Hedera is celebrating a major milestone as a crypto platform – the mainnet transaction count has surpassed the 20 billion mark.

As far as what this means for the decentralised public network, it is a significant achievement made all the more notable by the fact that the broader crypto market has seen a slowdown of activity. This even as crypto winter begins to recede into the rearview mirror for this cycle.

On Tuesday, Hedera posted the network’s achievement on X (fka Twitter), and noted something that points to how it’s recorded aggressive growth over the past few months and weeks. Per the X post, while it took years for total transactions to hit 10 billion, the march to 20 billion only took 100 days.

In other key network metrics on the HBAR website, details show Hedera currently processes over 134 million transactions per day. Total mainnet accounts have grown to more than 3.5 million.

Part of what’s driven real-world adoption for the network is recent partnerships with automakers Hyundai and Kia and the support for Hedera-based micro-payments platform Dropp Inc by the Federal Reserve’s payments network FedNow.

HBAR price

The price of HBAR was hovering around $0.049 at the time of writing, having retreated from weekly highs of $0.056. The current level was slightly in the green with 1.7% upside but traded more than 10% off its weekly peak as most altcoins mirrored Bitcoin’s declines to under $26k.

While HBAR saw an uptick today, sentiment is largely still bearish. Positive triggers alongside further global adoption will be key to bulls’ attempts to hit targets. 

However, an overall downturn in the market could dictate downside action and see sellers aim for June lows near $0.040.

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Genesis Global Trading to close its over-the-counter trading platform

  • Genesis Global Trading avoided Genesis bankruptcy earlier this year.
  • Genesis is currently trying to raise funds to pay back its creditors.
  • Genesis’ parent company DCG came to its rescue and reached an in-principle agreement with creditors.

According to an email issued to clients on Tuesday, Genesis’ spot crypto trading operation will close down later this month.

According to the email, Genesis Global Trading (GGT) will discontinue its over-the-counter trading platform on September 18. All trades must be completed by September 21; otherwise, all open accounts will be cancelled at the end of the day on September 30. The email stated that “the decision was made voluntarily and for business” purposes.

Genesis Global Trading avoided Genesis’ bankruptcy

Genesis Global Trading was one of a select group of Genesis-affiliated businesses that avoided the conglomerate’s collapse earlier this year as a result of crypto financing. The email from the company, however, stated that another division with a focus on trading, GGC International Limited, would keep operating its spot and derivative trading services.

Digital Currency Group (DCG), a major venture capital firm in the cryptocurrency industry and the parent of Genesis, recently reached an agreement in principle with Genesis’ creditors.

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Visa expands its stablecoin capability to include USDC issued on Solana

  • Visa started venturing into USDC settlements back in 2021 through a partnership with Crypto.com.
  • Crypto.com’s Australian card program’s cross-border volume was paid for using Ethereum-based USDC.
  • Visa is now expanding its USDC settlements to include Solana issues USDC coins.

Visa has expanded its stablecoin settlement capabilities to merchant acquirers launching pilots with Worldpay and Nuvei using the Solana blockchain.

Visa has revealed that it is settling fiat-based payments by moving millions of USDC tokens between partners across the Ethereum and Solana blockchains in live and completed pilots with issuers and acquirers.

In a statement, the payments company described how its support of USDC has evolved from trial programs involving Crypto.com to integrations with Worldpay and Nuvei, two merchant payment processors.

USDC settlements using Visa

Visa and Crypto.com started experimenting with USDC in 2021 to explore stablecoin settlement on the issuing side. In the ensuing trial, Crypto.com’s Australian card program’s cross-border volume was paid for using Ethereum-based USDC.

Prior to the collaboration with Visa, settlements for international transactions done on Crypto.com, using Visa cards included lengthy currency conversion procedures and incurred wire transfer costs. However, after the successful USDC settlement trials, the cryptocurrency exchange now settles obligations for its Australian Visa cards using USDC.

Given that Solana and Ethereum-based USDC are now part of the Visa ecosystem, the former can use Visa’s treasury and settlement mechanisms to link traditional finance to Web3. Cuy Sheffield, the head of crypto at Visa, stated that using blockchains like Ethereum and Solana and stablecoins like the USDC can help increase the speed of cross-border settlements.

Visa can now transmit money to USDC merchant acquirers like Worldpay and Nuvei thanks to the integration of USDC, which is anticipated to shorten settlement periods for businesses that use their services. By integrating Visa’s traditional fiat ecosystem with stablecoins and the larger cryptocurrency space they serve, the payment processors are able to route USDC payments to the merchants they serve.

According to Jim Johnson, president of Worldpay Merchant Solutions, Visa’s USDC settlement capacity would allow it to give merchants more options for receiving money and more effectively manage its treasury operations.

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Litecoin price outlook darkens as US dollar index (DXY) soars

  • The US dollar index jumped to the highest level in five months.

  • The rally happened as the US economic growth continued.

  • Cryptocurrencies like Litecoin have an inverse relationship with the USD.

Litecoin price remained under intense pressure on Tuesday as the US dollar index (DXY) surged to the highest level in over five months. LTC retreated to a low of $62 and is hovering near the lowest level since December last year.

US dollar index surges

Litecoin and other cryptocurrency prices have come under scrutiny after last week’s events. On Wednesday, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) suffered a major blow when Greyscale won a major case in the US.

The victory means that the SEC will likely approve the launch of spot Bitcoin ETFs. While coins like BTC and LTC jumped after the news, their rallies fizzled after the SEC decided to delay a decision on funds by companies like Blackrock and Invesco.

Litecoin investors are watching these events closely because of the close correlation that exists between BTC and LTC. For one, Litecoin was created from a Bitcoin folk.

Therefore, if Bitcoin succeeds in having a spot ETF, there is a high possibility that a Litecoin will also have its ETF shortly afterward.

The other big event moving Litecoin is the strong performance of the US dollar. The dollar index jumped to $104.5, which was the highest level in more than 5 months. It has soared by more than 5.25% from the lowest level this year.

The index has risen because of the strength of the American economy. Recent data shows that countries like China and Germany are struggling. At the same time, the Fed has hiked rates to the highest level in more than two decades.

As I wrote here, the resurgent US dollar has pushed yields on basic things like money market funds and CDs to over 5%. Therefore, investors are moving from crypto assets like Litecoin to those assets.

Litecoin price forecast

The daily chart shows that the LTC price has been in a downward trend in the past few weeks. This sell-off accelerated after the LTC halving momentum waned. It has moved below all moving averages and is now forming a bearish pennant pattern. All these patterns are usually bearish.

Therefore, Litecoin price will likely have a bearish breakout as sellers target the next support level at $55.

How to buy Litecoin

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Binance

Binance has grown exponentially since it was founded in 2017 and is now one of, if not the biggest cryptocurrency exchanges on the market.

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Blockchain Wire adds SHIB to list of accepted crypto

  • Blockchain Wire now accepts Shiba Inu (SHIB) as a payment method.
  • Support for SHIB adds to already accepted Bitcoin (BTC), Ethereum (ETH), Litecoin (LTC) Dogecoin (DOGE), Polygon (MATIC); as well as USDT and USDC.

Blockchain Wire, a press release distribution provider for blockchain and crypto news, has integrated a new payment option in the form of Shiba Inu (SHIB). The Alpha Transform Holdings subsidiary announced it had added SHIB to the list of accepted cryptocurrencies on Tuesday.

In addition to Shiba Inu, Blockchain Wire accepts Bitcoin (BTC), Ethereum (ETH), Litecoin (LTC) Dogecoin (DOGE), Polygon (MATIC) and the stablecoins USDT and USDC.

Blockchain Wire CEO Michael Shuler said in a comment:

“SHIB is a widely held token by many of our current and prospective clients. With the recent launch and bridge of Shibarium, it only makes sense for Blockchain Wire to accept such a broadly used token with a growing base of token holders and a rapidly developing layer-2 network.”

The integration of SHIB means the more than 1,800 companies across the industry that target news distribution can pay for the service via the popular token. SHIB currently ranks as the 16th largest cryptocurrency by market capitalization with $4.4 billion.

Shiba Inu started off as a dogecoin-inspired meme token, but is quickly transitioning into one of the largest crypto communities amid a burgeoning decentralized ecosystem. The recent launch of Shibarium is one of the steps that reignited whale interest in SHIB token, whose price has declined 19% in the past 30 days.

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