Binance Increases USDC Holdings as BUSD’s Market Cap Slides Lower

Martin Lee, Nansen’s data journalist, said that the USDC (usd coin) on Binance has been steadily increasing this week. Lee posted Tuesday that it was “interesting to see USDC on Binance rise so much since the US Dollar news.” Lee also stated that Binance witnessed a $1.5 Billion increase in USDC over the past seven days.

He also stated that he expected the supply of tether ( USDT ) to rise on Binance more that USDC, ‘given you can’t trade with USDC’ on Binance. Binance removed USDC trading pairs and converted customer balances to USDC on Sept. 5, 2022. Wazirx, two weeks later, followed Binance’s lead, delisting USDC (USDC), and a few other stablecoins, to auto-convert balances into BUSD.

Bitcoin.com News reported on February 19, that nearly 3 billion USD had been removed from market. Today, this number has risen to 3.55 trillion since Paxos declared it would not continue minting BUSD.

The Paxos-managed stablecoin remains the third largest stablecoin in terms of market capitalization, until it falls below $5 billion DAI’s market value. BUSD, once a prominent crypto asset in the top ten by market capitalization is on the verge of being eliminated from this list.

The Nansen researcher also pointed out that Binance’s main bank account has $1.8 billion USDC today. This is the highest amount in the past 90 days. As of the writing time (ET), on February 21, 2023, there was $1.821 trillion USDC in Binance’s main wallet.

Nansen’s portfolio viewer does not look at ERC20-based balances. Binance holds just over 100,000,000 Tether ( ) in the same wallet. The Binance wallet also has 79.24million trueusd (TUSD), and 5.34million DAI.

Skybridge Capital is Predicting Bitcoin Gets to $35k This Year But is That Hope Over Realism?

SkyBridge Capital, a global investment firm, is betting that Bitcoin will reach $35,000 by 2023 due to a sustained recovery in the crypto market.

SkyBridge Capital founder Anthony Scaramucci admitted that this view was “overly bullish” but said that the recent crypto rally could gain momentum with the upcoming Bitcoin “halving”, which occurs every 4 years and reduces the number of bitcoins available by half.

‘If bitcoin could trade again to $35,000 SkyBridge would have an incredible year.’ Scaramucci reportedly stated to the Reuters Global Markets Forum, Davos, Switzerland.

The Bitcoin halving event has historically been followed by higher prices. This is because it slows down the supply of BTC to the market. Experts predict that the next Bitcoin halving will be in May 2024. However, it is impossible to know exactly when this will happen.

SkyBridge is one of the few investment companies that has invested in cryptocurrency, including Bitcoin, Ethereum and Solana. SkyBridge plans to also invest in structured credit markets to generate 2023 returns, after its losses in 2022.

Scaramucci stated, “Structured Credit, Mortgage-backed Securities, Credit Card Debt, Auto Loans — that’s an attractive area again.” His firm had $2.2 billion in assets, with $800 million of digital asset-related investments.

Scaramucci also spoke to CNBC and called 2023 a “recovery year” for Bitcoin. He predicted that the cryptocurrency’s flagship currency would reach $50,000-100,000. He stated

“You’re taking on risk, but you also believe in [bitcoin] adoptive. If we do the adoption correctly, which I believe we will be, this could easily turn out to be a fifty-to-one hundred thousand dollar asset in the next two to 3 years.

Major cryptocurrencies broke through key resistance levels over the weekend and extended their rallies. Bitcoin, the largest cryptocurrency in the world, has surpassed the $21,000 mark, while Ethereum is at $1,600. Over the last week, both coins have seen a 20% increase in value.

Although a variety of factors may have contributed to the recent crypto rally, the market gained momentum following new data from the U.S. Department of Labor on Thursday that indicated a cooling in inflation.

The December annual inflation rate was 6.5%, down from 7.1% in November. Inflation decreased 0.1% month-over-month compared to 0.1% last month. Core CPI, which doesn’t take volatile food or energy prices into consideration, dropped to 5.7% in November from 6%.

As it puts pressure on US Federal Reserve to slow rate increases, lower inflation is often regarded as a bullish sign for crypto and risk assets such as crypto.

Three Countries Account for Nearly Two-Thirds of Africa’s Crypto Holders – Study

According to the most recent study by the Policy Center for the New South in Morocco (PCNS), Nigeria had the highest number of cryptocurrency owners (40.5%) of all 33 African countries surveyed.

According to the study, South Africa is the next-highest-ranked African country, with 7.71 million crypto holders. It is third in Africa with 6 million crypto holders, according to the study.

These three countries have the highest percentage of crypto holders of all the surveyed states. They also have the lowest proportion of holders to their population.

This metric shows that South Africa, which has 12.27% of crypto holders, is number one. With 11.85%, Kenya ranks second, while Nigeria is third with 10.33%.

The Urban and Economic Factors are responsible for the rising number of crypto holders

The PCNS study showed that crypto holders in the remaining countries was between one and five per cent. Togo (42.22%) and Ghana (4.3%) are the top two countries in this category. Cabo Verde (1%) ranks lowest.

In Seychelles, home to major cryptocurrency exchanges such as Huobi and Kucoin, the ratio of crypto holders to the estimated 90,000+ inhabitants is 1.33%.

The summary of the PCNS study, commenting on the findings:

This is not a random phenomenon. It is partly explained by the specific demographic, urban, and economic factors of the continent. The technology of cryptocurrency, [how it] allows capital to be transferred more quickly and at lower costs, is the other explanation.

The summary stated that countries which have restricted or banned the use of cryptocurrency like Nigeria should consider regulation.

With Sky-High Volatility, Here’s How To Generate Income On Bitcoin

Investors rushed to obtain their coins from unregulated sites after the collapse of FTX, the second-largest cryptocurrency exchange in the world. In just two days, Bitcoin lost 24% of its value.

Investors can sell options on the Proshares Bitcoin Strategy eTF ( BITO) to generate income as the crypto market slows down and implied volatility remains high.

Investors can sell the 7-strike put expiring March 17, with a price of BITO trading at 10.15 on Thursday’s close. Investors will earn approximately $65 per lot by selling this put. This is the maximum profit that investors would receive if BITO trades exceed 7 at expiry. This trade has a break-even of 6.35.

Bitcoin must trade below $11,500 to lose more than 30% by March, as a benchmark.

You get a great deal on your options

This trade is attractive due to its high volatility and high skew. It can make money if bitcoin falls, stays neutral, or rises only moderately before expiration.

These options are very expensive due to their implied volatility of 96%. This is because BITO’s 30-day realized volatility, which includes the entire FTX mess, is only 72%.

Investors are eager to see if the next crypto exchange or fund with excessive leverage drops. However, it is difficult to imagine the market being taken by surprise at this stage unless there is an overwhelming contagion effect. Volatility should decrease in the next few months, unless there is a significant new catalyst.

The break-even price for Bitcoin in this trade may be lower than $11,500. Bitcoin futures are trading at a discount, even though they should be traded at a slightly higher price than bitcoin’s spot.

The December and November contracts, which BITO holds, trade at 1% and 2% below BTC’s spot prices, respectively. The Grayscale Bitcoin Trust ( GBTC) has a huge discount of 40% that is unlikely to disappear anytime soon. However, futures must converge to bitcoin spot prices on expiration. The backwardation will provide a slight tailwind to the price BITO over the next months.

The CFTC regulates Bitcoin futures trading on CME. They don’t have the solvency risk associated with trading cryptocurrencies on unregulated exchanges.

Google Launches Blockchain Node Engine, Says ‘Ethereum Will Be the First Blockchain Supported’

Alphabet Inc. (Nasdaq GOOGL) announced Thursday the launch of its Google Cloud Blockchain Node Engine. Google released the engine because it believes that self-managed nodes can be difficult to deploy and need constant management.

The Blockchain Node Engine product can be used by both crypto companies and Web3 service providers. It is a fully managed node-hosting platform that can be used to leverage the blockchain. On Thursday, the company explained that the new node-engine service will be available to support Ethereum, the second largest crypto asset network according to market capital.

The tech company stated that Ethereum will be the first blockchain to be supported by Blockchain Engine. This allows developers to create fully managed Ethereum nodes with secure blockchain access.

This news comes after Google’s recent collaboration with Coinbase to promote Web3 innovation. The latest blockchain engine product allows Web3 companies to relay transactions, deploy smart contract, and read and write blockchain data with the reliability and performance they expect from Google Cloud compute.

A Blockdata study also shows that Google is a top investor in blockchain technology, having invested in companies like Fireblocks and Digital Currency Group (DCG), Dapper Labs and Vultage. The tech giant’s entry in the world of decentralized financial (defi), and Web3 was announced last May, when it created a Web3 team within their cloud unit.

A spokesperson for Google stated that they were providing technologies to companies in order to take advantage of Web3’s distributed nature in their businesses and enterprises. According to the latest announcement, the service will offer’streamlined provisioning’,’secure development’ and ‘fully-managed operations’.

Google’s blog concludes that Blockchain Node Engine reduces the need for dedicated Devops teams and offers Google Cloud’s service-level agreement (SLA) so your team can focus on your users, not your infrastructure. We are excited to support organizations with a reliable and easy-to-use cloud node hosting service that allows them to focus on developing and scaling Web3 applications.

HTML Snippets Powered By : XYZScripts.com