Bitcoin continued to rally early Tuesday with an 11% increase over the past 24 hours, as investors breathe a sigh of relief on news that the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. is backing up all deposits at Silicon Valley Bank and Signature Bank (SBNY), two troubled crypto-related banks. Another possible catalyst is that investors are moving away from stablecoins and into bitcoin after Circle Internet Financial’s USDC stablecoin lost its $1 peg over the weekend. On Tuesday, bitcoin rose to a three-week high of $24,900, extending a three-day winning streak. Over $100 million worth of bitcoin shorts, or bets against a rise in prices, were liquidated on Monday. Ether also gained on Tuesday, up 5%, and crypto exchange OKEx’s OKB token rose 15%.
Bitcoin’s 24-hour price chart
The Commodity Futures Trading Commission announced former White House official Carole House as the new chairwoman and blockchain analysis company TRM Labs’ Ari Redboard as vice chairman of its Technology Advisory Committee. The CFTC published a list of its members to the committee on Monday, announcing the committee had been newly constituted, and is being sponsored by Commissioner Christy Goldsmith Romero, who took office last March. “To protect our markets from increasingly-sophisticated cyber attacks, to ensure responsible development of digital assets in a way that protects customers and to ensure that the implications of emerging technologies like artificial intelligence are well understood, the Commission requires advice from technology experts,” Goldsmith Romero said in a statement.
Cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase has officially suspended trading for the binance USD (BUSD) stablecoin, according to a tweet on Monday. The exchange announced its intention to delist BUSD in February with Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong citing liquidity concerns. The decision came after Paxos Trust, the company that issues BUSD, stopped minting the stablecoin as a result of regulatory action by the New York Department of Financial Services and, reportedly, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.
Market Insight: Binance’s ‘Brexit’
Danny Nelson/CoinDesk
Binance, the world’s largest crypto exchange by trading volume, suspended British pound on- and off-ramps for new users on Monday and for all users on May 22.
“Paysafe, our fiat partner that provides GBP deposit and withdrawal services via bank transfers and via card to Binance users, has advised us that they will no longer be able to provide these services from May 22, 2023,” a Binance spokesperson told CoinDesk in an email.
According to Binance, the change will affect less than 1% of users, and the exchange is working to find an alternative solution.
“In the meantime, all methods of depositing and withdrawing other fiat currencies as well as buying and selling crypto on Binance.com remain unaffected,” the spokesperson added.
The chart shows the combined market capitalization of the top three dollar-pegged stablecoins – USDT, USDC and BUSD – continues to slide despite bitcoin’s 25% recovery from late Friday lows near $19,550.
The divergence reflects investor preference for assets detached from traditional finance.
Three U.S. banks have collapsed within a week, bringing attention to bitcoin as a censorship-resistant non-sovereign alternative asset that cannot be debased.
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Disclaimer: The information presented in this message is intended as a news item that provides a brief summary of various events and developments that affect, or that might in the future affect, the value of one or more of the cryptocurrencies described above. The information contained in this message, and any information liked through the items contained herein, is not intended to provide sufficient information to form the basis for an investment decision. The information presented herein is accurate only as of its date, and it was not prepared by a research analyst or other investment professional. You should seek additional information regarding the merits and risks of investing in any cryptocurrency before deciding to purchase or sell any such instruments.
