Schlagwort: crypto markets

• South Korea saw crypto trading volumes spike to $34 billion in 24 hours amid the president’s martial law order.
• The unrest and political chaos catalysed a panic among crypto traders, pushing 24-hour volume to record highs.

South Korea’s brief martial law order saw the crypto trading volume in the country surge to its highest level ever with over $34 billion traded in 24 hours on Dec. 3.

President Yoon Suk-yeol declared an emergency curfew on Tuesday amid a wave of unrest, spooking traders as martial law came into effect.

This saw the leading cryptocurrency exchanges in the country register a massive surge in spot trading volume. Per market data sampling the top five exchanges in the country, trading volumes rose to more than $34 across Upbit, Bithumb, Coinone, Korbit and Gopax.

Why the martial law?

President Yoon Suk Yeol said the situation forced him to take that drastic measure of declaring emergency curfew due to the growing “anti-state” stance by the opposition.

He called their actions posing a threat to national security and freedom. Soldiers pouring onto the streets and chaos at parliament as lawmakers scrambled to undo the events with a vote is part of why panic hit traders.

Crypto price reaction

In the brief period that the curfew lasted, traders rushed to sell assets. The panic did not just lead to the significant surge in crypto trading volume, it also impacted the broader cryptocurrency market.

Bitcoin struggled further with the sell-wall below the $100k level and top altcoins shed recent gains. For instance, XRP pared gains from its latest high above $2.80 as prices retreated to lows of $2.40 before posting a slight recovery as of writing. Ethereum price also shed gains from highs above $3,732 to near $3,540.

President Yoon’s decision has since been reversed and heavily criticised, amid further political unrest. The martial law order could see the South Korean president impeached, observers say.

The post South Korea crypto volume hit record $34 billion: Here’s why appeared first on CoinJournal.

Key takeaways

• On Tuesday, NYSE Arca filed a form on behalf of Grayscale Investments for a spot Solana ETF.
• iDEGEN’s pre-market auction has surpassed the $2 million mark/

Grayscale files for a spot Solana ETF

NYSE Arca, the New York Stock Exchange’s exchange-traded product platform, filed a form for a spot Solana ETF on behalf of Grayscale Investments. The exchange filed a 19b-4 form on Tuesday for the Grayscale Solana Trust. This indicates that the firm wants the SEC to approve a rule change. 

Several companies, including 21Shares, VanEck, Bitwise Asset Management, and Canary Capital, have filed with the SEC to list Solana ETFs.

What is iDEGEN?

The launch of spot Solana ETFs will benefit projects in the Solana ecosystem. One promising project on the blockchain is iDEGEN. This project focuses on the bulging AI and memecoin ecosystems. 

iDEGEN is a sentient degenerate AI memelord. According to the development team, iDEGEN learns, evolves, and adapts based on what the community feeds it on X. Basically, the tool is powered by AI, raised by degens.

It will launch as a memecoin thanks to the fast-growing nature of projects in this space. Meme coins have a combined market cap of over $45 billion and are expected to grow larger in the coming months and years. 

iDEGEN as a tool evolves via interactions on X. According to the development team, users feed the tool their data through tweets, tags, and comments. iDEGEN absorbs that post and adds it to its knowledge base; that’s how it learns.

Furthermore, iDEGEN posts on X every 60 minutes and can generate and post memes. The team pointed out that everything iDEGEN posts is driven by its AI and what it learns from its community, with no human intervention.

iDEGEN’s pre-market auction hits $2m

iDEGEN is currently undertaking a presale for its native token, $IDGN, to raise funds to finance its products and services. According to its official website, iDEGEN has raised over $2 million roughly a week after commencing the pre-market auction. 

According to the team, the pre-market auction leverages an unconventional method to attract more investors. iDEGEN’s presale price adjusts every five minutes based on market activity. If an investor purchases $IDGN tokens within five minutes, the price remains steady for the next period. However, if purchases occur consecutively, $IDGN’s price rises by 5%. Finally, if no one buys the tokens within five minutes, the price drops by 5%.

The pre-market auction will last until January 1, 2025, before the token lists on cryptocurrency exchanges.

Should you invest in the iDEGEN project?

iDEGEN is an interesting project that combines AI and meme coins. It could become one of the leading meme coin projects on the Solana blockchain.

According to the team,$IDGN has a live pre-market listing price on its website, allowing investors to accurately track the token’s progress ahead of its launch on trading platforms. 

Investing in iDEGEN during its presale could be an excellent opportunity for investors to buy the tokens at a discount before they list on major cryptocurrency exchanges.

The post Grayscale files for a Solana ETF: What does this mean for iDEGEN? appeared first on CoinJournal.

• dtcpay has announced that it will be shifting its payments services to stablecoins only effective 2025.
• The Singapore-based platform will phase out Bitcoin and Ethereum by end of the year.

Singapore-based payment institution dtcpay has made a major announcement effective 2025, Fintech News has reported.

The licensed payment platform has announced breaking ties with digital assets Bitcoin and Ethereum as payment modes. It intends to support only stablecoins and fiat currency payment modes.

The move majors more on stability of stablecoins and fiat currency rather than the volatility nature of crypto. Business operators and consumers are also assured of a more secure payment mode and in line with the country’s regulations.

dtcpay eyes stablecoins in services pivot

In its announcement, dtcpay mentioned that there will be a paradigm shift come January 2025. Announcing its cancellation for accepting BTC and ETH, it intends to accept stablecoins USDT, USDC, Worldwide USD (WUSD) and First Digital USD (FDUSD) among others.

dtcpay’s decision comes amid an increased trajectory that has seen the regulated digital payments provider’s users lean towards stablecoins. The growth is what the company is looking to tap into, with digital payments seen as the new frontier in revolution that’s crypto.

Stablecoins make a huge chunk of this, with a Chainalysis report for Q2, 2024 indicating that the asset-backed tokens accounted for an estimated $1 billion in payments.

dtcpay’s strategic move is a strong indicator of the need for a stable and most reliable way of digital payment. Owing to its long-serving trend and trust, the platform boost of consumer confidence.

The platform’s good record in innovation, progressive growth in the digital world and different accolades has seen it become a darling to businesses.

In October 2024, the payment platform, and the only Asia -based company was picked for the Mastercard Starter Path programme. It also became the first to launch a regulated POS in Singapore enabling business owners to accept crypto payments.

The post dtcpay to phase out BTC, ETH support amid services shift appeared first on CoinJournal.

• XRP price reached $2.82, its latest high as bulls dominate.
• The cryptocurrency surged amid reports that Donald Trump could name his SEC Chair pick in coming hours.
• XRP traded at an all-time high of $3.40 in January 2018 and struggled amid SEC lawsuit filed in Dec. 2020.

XRP, the cryptocurrency that has seen the most gains among the top 10 coins in the past few weeks, has spiked to a new high above $2.80.

The cryptocurrency of the Ripple ecosystem soared another 20% on Tuesday to lead the largest crypto assets by market cap as its price crossed $2.82 for its highest level since 2018. With this surge, XRP bulls are now eyeing the $3 level, a landmark level that could open up another vertical run past the all-time high of $3.40 reached on January 7, 2018.

Why is XRP soaring today?

XRP has soared 110% in the past week and 457% in the past month – gains that go back to Trump’s win on November 5, 2024.

As most coins edged higher, led by Bitcoin’s rally to near $100k, XRP accelerated past $1 and then $2. This came as the community reacted to news that SEC Chair Gary Gensler will step down on January 20, 2025.

Ripple’s legal woes, which had the SEC suing the company in December 2020, helped constrain XRP’s price. However, with Ripple winning an epic court battle that ended with XRP declared not a security, bulls have looked to make up for lost time.

The latest uptick in prices comes amid news that president-elect Donald Trump could name Gensler’s replacement as SEC Chair “soon as tomorrow.”

Fox Business journalist Eleanor Terrett shared the news on X early Dec. 3.

🚨NEW: @realDonaldTrump’s pick to replace @GaryGensler as @SECGov Chair could be announced as soon as tomorrow, sources tell @FoxBusiness. Stay tuned 📺.

— Eleanor Terrett (@EleanorTerrett) December 3, 2024

XRP has also benefited immensely from the recent spate of positive ETF related news. On Monday, asset manager WisdomTree joined several firms that have filed for XRP spot ETFs with the SEC. WisdomTree’s S-1 filing joins applications by Bitwise, 21Shares and Canary Capital.

The firms seek the listing and trading of exchange-traded funds that track the daily price of XRP. A change at the SEC has the community highly bullish on the potential approval for the products.

Analysts looking at these factors and the overall market outlook are extremely bullish on XRP. Many see the XRP price spiking past the ATH reached almost 7 years ago as it cements its position as the third-largest cryptocurrency behind Ethereum and Bitcoin.

The post XRP hits new high above 2.80 amid fresh bounce appeared first on CoinJournal.

• Coinbase has added Apple Pay for fiat-to-crypto purchases via its Coinbase Onramp.
• The integration brings a tool for building onramps into users’ existing products.

Coinbase has announced the integration of Apple Pay for its fiat-to-crypto on-ramping.

The Apple Pay partnership will see users benefit from easy fiat-to-crypto purchases via the crypto exchange’s Coinbase Onramp, a tool that allows users to build onramps into their existing products.

Get on-chain easily with Coinbase Onramp

With onboarding to crypto largely complex for many platforms and users, made even more unwelcoming with the back and forth of KYC, Coinbase says its tool removes all these.

“Coinbase Onramp takes the hassle out of fiat-to-crypto conversions with lightweight KYC for eligible purchases, free USDC on and off-ramping, and access to the most popular payment methods. With Apple Pay, getting onchain only takes seconds,” the exchange wrote in a blog post.

Adding Apple Pay as a payment method means users will enjoy faster onboarding. The end-to-end experience will only take seconds for users to convert their fiat to crypto. Coinbase Onramp also means businesses can access more than 60 million Apple Pay users in the US.

The integration also means free on and off-ramping with USDC.

In April this year, Coinbase announced support for Apple Pay for its users in the UK, adding the capacity to buy Bitcoin, Ethereum and other digital assets with the payment option.

The post Coinbase partners with Apple Pay for fiat-to-crypto purchases appeared first on CoinJournal.