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Silicon Valley Bank down, USDC depegged, FTX billed $34M in Jan.: Hodler’s Digest, March 5-11

Top Stories This Week

Silicon Valley Bank shut down by California regulator, holding over $5 billion for prominent crypto VCs

Silicon Valley Bank (SVB) was shut down by California’s financial watchdog on March 10 after announcing a significant sale of assets and stocks aimed at raising additional capital. The California watchdog appointed the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) as the receiver to protect insured deposits. However, the FDIC only insures up to $250,000 per depositor, per institution and per ownership category. The bank held over $5 billion in funds from major venture capital firms. Silicon Valley Bank is one of the top 20 largest banks in the United States, providing banking services to crypto-friendly venture companies, such as Sequoia Capital and Andreessen Horowitz.

USDC depegs as Circle confirms $3.3B stuck with Silicon Valley Bank

USD Coin (USDC) issuer Circle confirmed that $3.3 billion of its $40 billion USDC reserves remain at Silicon Valley Bank, triggering a sell-off that resulted in the stablecoin falling below $1. The stablecoin ecosystem felt an immediate impact as USDC depegged from the U.S. dollar, with major stablecoin depegging from the U.S. dollar as a consequence, including DAI, USDD and FRAX. The USDC price was slowly re-pegging on late Saturday after turbulent trading hours. Circle plans to cover missing liquidity in SVB with corporate funds.

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Circle plans to cover missing liquidity in Silicon Valley Bank with corporate funds

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USD Coin (USDC) issuer Circle plans to use "corporate resources" to cover the shortfall on its reserves following Silicon Valley Bank's shutdown, said the company in a statement on March 11. 

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ATOM bulls watch closely as Cosmos interchain security prepares for March 15 launch

The Cosmos community has approved a vote to add “replicated security (RS)” to its chain, with 99.99% of votes in favor of the motion. The much-awaited upgrade is set to go live on March 15, 2023, with the v9-Lamba upgrade. 

RS is the first version of Cosmos’s Interchain Security (ICS) feature, allowing blockchains in the Cosmos ecosystem to share validation resources for improved security.

Only protocols approved by Cosmos governance will be added as consumer chains in the upcoming update. Eight consumer chains are potential candidates for selection, including Neutron, PolymerDAO, Duality, Stride, Simply Staking, FairBlock and Comdex.

Cosmos’s interchain security could start a virtuous real yield cycle

The Replicated Security feature will distribute up to 25% of the consumer chain fees to Cosmos Hub stakers. The protocols can also allocate a portion of token inflation and revenue streams to Cosmos (ATOM) stakers.

The ICS implementation allows consumer chains to focus entirely on the growth of the network’s economy, as Cosmos Hub’s validators provide reliable security against 51% attacks and double-spending. This will bring additional yield to ATOM stakers and allow consumer chains to optimize for growth.

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Banks down? That is why Bitcoin was created, crypto community says

Silicon Valley Bank (SVB) collapse on March 10 has sparked fear, doubt, and uncertainty (FUD) across the crypto community, leading many to come back to crypto roots, reviving the Bitcoin white paper published just weeks after the Lehman Brothers meltdown in 2008. 

"There’s an entire generation of builders who only read about Lehman and the financial crisis and scoffed at Bitcoin. Now, their eyes are wide open. Welcome new friends," stated on Twitter Ryan Selkis, founder and CEO of Messari. 

Approximately six weeks after the dramatic collapse of the American bank, Satoshi Nakamoto released the now famous white paper that paved the way for the emergence of the Bitcoin network.

Some people blame the SVB failure on the rising interest rates in the United States. The Federal Reserve increased its benchmark rate over the past year to more than 4.5% - the highest rate since 2007. In January, the inflation rate in the US was 6.4%.

Many crypto and tech companies are affected by the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank. USD Coin (USDC) issuer Circle revealed it could not withdraw $3.3 billion of its $40 billion reserves from SVB, leading to a sell-off and the stablecoin's price dropping below its $1 peg.

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Bitcoin price spikes to '$26K' in USDC terms — How high can the BTC short squeeze go?

Bitcoin (BTC) refused to let $20,000 support die for good on March 11 as the weekend opened to a battle for lost ground.

BTC/USD 1-hour candle chart (Bitstamp). Source: TradingView

Bitcoin shakes off USDC depeg

Data from Cointelegraph Markets Pro and TradingView showed BTC/USD circling $20,200 at the time of writing.

A brief dip below the $20,000 mark overnight was short lived, and the mood appeared more stable on the day as the initial wave of panic over United States bank stability subsided.

The collapse of SVB Financial, which followed Silvergate in dealing a fresh blow to some crypto firms, nonetheless continued to play out.

At the heart of the debacle this time was Circle, the Blockchain firm which overnight revealed that it had lost part of the reserve funds for its stablecoin, USD Coin (USDC) with SVB.

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Circle’s USDC instability causes domino effect on DAI, USDD stablecoins

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The stablecoin ecosystem felt an immediate effect as USD Coin (USDC) depegged from the US dollar due to a subsequent sell-off after Silicon Valley Bank (SVB) did not process $.3.3 billion of Circle’s $40 million transfer request. Given USDC’s collateral influence, major stablecoin ecosystems followed suit in depegging from the dollar.

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USDC investor shells out $2M to receive $0.05 USDT trying to evade crash

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Soon after Circle revealed that Silicon Valley Bank did not transfer $3.3 billion of its USD Coin (USDC) reserves, the market responded with a massive sell-off — depegging the stablecoin from the US dollar. However, not all investors were lucky enough to walk away with their funds amid the uncertainty.

To cut losses, investors started selling their USDC tokens in exchange for other stablecoins, such as Tether (USDT) and avoiding impermanent losses. Unfortunately, a member of Crypto Twitter who goes by the name BowTiedPickle highlighted a transaction that shows that a USDC investor paid over $2 million to receive $0.05 of USDT

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Dogecoin hits 4-month lows vs. Bitcoin — 50% DOGE price rebound now in play

Dogecoin (DOGE) pared some losses versus Bitcoin (BTC) on March 10, a day after the DOGE/BTC pair fell to its lowest level since October 2022. Can DOGE price see an extended rebound ahead? 

On the daily chart, the DOGE/BTC pair reached 331 sats, up 4.75% compared to the previous day's low of 316 sats. The bounce occurred around a multi-month descending trendline, which has capped the pair's downside moves since November 2022.

DOGE/BTC daily price chart. Source: TradingView

DOGE price vs. BTC

Interestingly, the DOGE/BTC descending trendline appears part of a prevailing falling wedge pattern. Traditional chart analysts consider the falling wedge a bullish reversal setup, notably because of the pattern's 62% success rate in meeting its upside price targets. 

In Dogecoin's case, the price is wobbling around its falling wedge's apex point, where its upper and lower trendline converge. DOGE's latest rebound from the lower trendline increases its possibility of testing the upper trendline for a breakout, as illustrated in the chart below.

DOGE/BTC daily price chart featuring falling wedge breakout. Source: TradingView

The upside setup further draws support from the DOGE/BTC's daily relative strength index (RSI) with a reading of around 28. From a technical perspective, an RSI below 30 means the pair is oversold, which could prompt its price to consolidate sideways or rebound.

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Hedera confirms exploit on mainnet led to theft of service tokens

Hedera, the team behind distributed ledger Hedera Hashgraph, has confirmed a smart contract exploit on the Hedera Mainnet that has led to the theft of several liquidity pool tokens.

Hedera said the attacker targeted liquidity pool tokens on decentralized exchanges (DEXs) that derived its code from Uniswap v2 on Ethereum, which was ported over to use on the Hedera Token Service.

The Hedera team explained that the suspicious activity was detected when the attacker attempted to moved the stolen tokens across the Hashport bridge, which consisted of liquidity pool tokens on SaucerSwap, Pangolin and HeliSwap. However, operators then acted promptly to temporarily pause the bridge.

Hedera didn't confirm the amount of tokens that were stolen.

On Feb. 3, Hedera upgraded the network to convert Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM)-compatible smart contract code onto the Hedera Token Service (HTS).

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CBDCs could be 'easily weaponized' to spy on US citizens: Congressman

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United States Congressman Tom Emmer believes the launch of programmable central bank digital currency (CBDC) in the country could strip American citizens of their financial privacy.

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'I anti-endorse these projects' — Buterin's shitcoin war sees him sent another 250K

Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin's latest salvo against “shitcoins” has ended up with him simply being sent more of it.

Only days ago, the Ethereum developer made moves to sell over $700,000 of tokens previously airdropped to him, causing the price of these tokens to fall. 

Buterin has since continued his war on apparent “shitcoins.” In a Mar. 9 post on a small subreddit, Buterin labeled crypto token Bite (BITE) and most of the other coins discussed on the r/Testingtesting62831 subreddit were “shitcoins” which have “no redeeming cultural or moral value, and will probably lose you most of the money you put into them.”

Vitalik Buterin's full post on the Testingtesting62831 subreddit. Source: Reddit

BITE was one of the tokens Buterin sold in his shitcoin selling spree on Mar. 7, selling 3.4 million BITE for around $9,250, according to PeckShield.

“I anti-endorse these projects to the greatest extent.”

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Thailand’s $1B crypto sacrifice, Mt Gox final deadline, Tencent NFT app nixed: Asia Express

Our weekly roundup of news from East Asia curates the industry’s most important developments.

South Korea invests another $51M in metaverse tech

South Korea’s plans for metaverse domination are gathering pace. A Mar. 8 document prepared by the Ministry of Science and Information and Communication Technology (ICT), the National IT Industry Promotion Agency, and the Korea Radio Promotion Association, says the three entities will invest a total of 27.7 billion Korean won ($21 million) in metaverse projects across 13 sectors such as healthcare, tourism, and education. One example use case is about telemedicine in the metaverse:

“Establish a virtual counseling space and provide mental health recovery and promotion services through expert psychological counseling, healing contents, and community activities.”

The same day, South Korea‘s Ministry of Science and ICT also announced the creation of a 40 billion Korean won ($30 million) metaverse fund to be operated by local investment management companies. It cited the need to incubate domestic metaverse-related companies to become big enough to compete with global companies through the expansion of business areas and scale.

The South Korean government is betting big on the development of VR (Korean Tourism Organization)

Mt. Gox’s final deadline for claims

On Mar. 9, trustees of bankrupt Japanese cryptocurrency exchange Mt. Gox announced that creditors have until Apr. 6, 2023, to complete registration to receive repayment. The biggest Bitcoin exchange in the world at the time, Mt. Gox filed for bankruptcy in 2014 after discovering that 850,000 of the exchange’s Bitcoins had been stolen via discreet hacks and siphoning over a number of years. The exchange has since recovered around 200,000 BTC. The funds have been held in trust for the creditors, with 162,106 BTC ($3.49 billion) sitting in wallet addresses tracked by Token Unlock.

The South Korean government is betting big on the development of VR (Korean Tourism Organization)
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Why is XRP price up today?

XRP price extended its gains on March 9, rising around 1.5% to $0.40, despite a general downturn in the cryptocurrency market.  

XRP price four-day winning streak

The rally in the XRP/USD pair started on March 5 with the XRP market capitalization gaining over 10% in the past four days.

XRP/USD daily price chart. Source: TradingView

In contrast, the entire crypto market's cap has dropped by about 5% in the same period, with top coins Bitcoin (BTC) and Ether (ETH) losing by 4.5% and 4%, respectively.

Ripple scores early win versus SEC 

XRP's gains appear as investors pin their hopes on Ripple winning its long-running courtroom battle against the United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

On March 6, U.S. District Judge Analisa Torres issued a ruling on motions filed by Ripple and the SEC to exclude the comments of expert witnesses from the upcoming summary judgment. She approved and denied the motions in part, underscoring no clear winner and loser in the matter.

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$54B fund partner runs women-only DAO, LatAm blockchain gaming guild

Clara Bullrich must have cloned herself or possibly invoked dark forces that shouldn’t be meddled with. Somehow, she’s managed to cram about four careers into one life.

Her main gig is leading her own financial entity, AlTi, managing a whopping investment fund, which grew to $54 billion under management following a recent merger. That’s a big enough job in itself.

A member of Women in Blockchain, she also runs a women-only DAO, Komorebi, that concentrates on funding female and non-gender-specific projects.

“I’ve seen in crypto that there’s very few women, and I really want to push that as much as I can,” she says. “For me, it’s always important to have skin in the game.”

And if that wasn’t enough, she’s also the founder of a gaming guild, Ola Guild Games (OlaGG), that hopes to upskill the quarter of a billion mobile gamers in Latin America so they can boost their incomes using play-to-earn blockchain games. 

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5 countries leading the blockchain adoption

Countries lead blockchain adoption for various reasons, including recognizing its potential to transform multiple sectors of the economy, promoting innovation and economic growth, and creating a favorable regulatory environment to attract blockchain businesses.

Types of blockchain communities that lead blockchain adoption

Blockchain communities refer to groups of individuals, organizations and companies involved in developing and using blockchain technology. These communities form to share knowledge, collaborate on projects and advance the adoption of blockchain technology.

There are different types of blockchain communities, including:

Developer communities: These groups of blockchain developers work together to create protocols, programs, smart contracts and other blockchain-based projects.Industry communities: Communities developed around specific industries or sectors, such as banking, healthcare and supply chain management, are known as industry communities. Members of these communities work together to create blockchain solutions that can handle the particular problems faced by their respective sectors.User communities: Individuals that use blockchain-based goods or services make up these communities. They exchange information and offer feedback to enhance the usability and functionality of blockchain goods.Investment communities: These groups have grown around blockchain-based ventures like cryptocurrency or startups that use the technology. Members of these communities engage in due diligence projects, exchanging knowledge and views about potential investment opportunities.Social impact communities: These groups are focused on leveraging blockchain technology to solve problems in the social and environmental spheres. Members of these communities work together to develop blockchain solutions that could create a more just and sustainable world.

Countries leading blockchain adoption

Blockchain technology can potentially boost numerous industries’ productivity, security, and transparency, reducing costs and enhancing customer experiences. Therefore, countries are investing in developing and using blockchain technology to address different societal and economic concerns.

El Salvador

El Salvador has emerged as a global pioneer in adopting blockchain technology after becoming the first nation to recognize Bitcoin as a legal tender. In June 2021, El Salvador’s government established a law recognizing Bitcoin as a legitimate payment method for goods and services alongside the U.S. dollar, the nation’s legal currency. Through this effort, the government aimed to prioritize financial inclusion in the country, where 70% of adults do not have a bank account.

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Price analysis 3/8: BTC, ETH, BNB, XRP, ADA, DOGE, MATIC, SOL, DOT, LTC

On March 7, United States Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell warned that interest rates may remain higher for longer than previously anticipated. This boosted expectations of a 50 basis points rate hike in the Fed’s March meeting to about 70% from 30% a week earlier, FedWatch Tool data suggests.

The U.S. dollar shot up and the S&P 500 plunged after Powell’s comments on March 7 but a minor positive in favor of the cryptocurrency investors is that Bitcoin (BTC) stayed relatively calm. The next trigger that could influence the markets is the February Jobs report to be released on March 10.

Daily cryptocurrency market performance. Source: Coin360

Although the macroeconomic environment is not favorable for risky assets, Bitcoin has shown relative resilience. This suggests that Bitcoin investors are not panicking and dumping their positions due to the short-term uncertainty.

Will Bitcoin and the major altcoins continue lower or is a rebound around the corner? Let’s study the charts of the top-10 cryptocurrencies to find out.

BTC/USDT

The bulls are finding it difficult to push Bitcoin back above the breakdown level of $22,800. This suggests a lack of aggressive buying at current levels. That could pull the price down to the crucial support of $21,480. This is the make-or-break level in the near term.

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The ‘soft shell taco method’ of becoming a hot new NFT artist — Terrell Jones, NFT Creator 

Artist: Terrell Jones, Michigan
Date minted first NFT: March 28, 2021
Which blockchains? Ethereum, Tezos

Influenced by classic gangster films, Terrell Jones has a distinctive style that captures imagination and nostalgia. He is about to auction a second piece at Sotheby’s and has a patented “soft-shell taco method” to garner the attention of notable collectors. 

Who is he?

From childhood aspirations of being a cartoonist to now being one of the hottest new NFT artists capturing the attention of elite collectors and Sotheby’s, Terrell Jones is well into his launch trajectory.

Born in Ann Arbour, Michigan, Jones has a visually distinct style. But it is his ability to tell stories through his art such as the collections “Evil in Color” and “Good and Evil” that sets him apart. Just in the last two months, Jones has had some of his highest-ever sales, and there is growing interest in his work.

“A big thing for me has always been to try to connect my stories and images with a deeper part of everyone. With the way things are moving now and with so many artists, people are probably seeing more art within a day than you probably would have seen within a year. It’s been a big shift,” Jones says. 

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Vitalik dumps $700K worth of shitcoins that he never asked for

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Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin has gone on a shitcoin selling spree, exchanging nearly $700,000 worth of tokens previously airdropped to him for Ether (ETH).

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Ethereum price action and derivatives data confirm that bears are currently in control

The price of Ether (ETH) declined 6% between March 2-3, followed by a tight range trading near $1,560. Still, analyzing a wider time frame provides no clear trend, as its chart can point to a descending channel or a slightly longer seven-week bullish pattern.

Ether (ETH) price index in USD, 1-day. Source: TradingView

Ether's recent lack of volatility can be partially explained by the upcoming Shanghai hard fork, an implementation aimed at allowing ETH staking withdrawals. Those participants were each required to lock 32 ETH staked on the Beacon Chain to support the network consensus protocol.

After a series of delays, typical for changes in the production environment, the Shanghai Capella upgrade — also known as Shapella — is expected for early April, according to Ethereum core developer and project coordinator Tim Beiko. The Goerli testnet upgrade on March 14 will be the final rehearsal for the Shanghai hard fork before it is rolled out on the mainnet.

Recession risks increase, favoring ETH bears

On the macroeconomic front, United States Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell testified before the Senate Banking Committee on March 7. Powell stated that interest rates will likely rise higher than anticipated after "the latest economic data have come in stronger than expected."

Evidence points to the Fed lipping behind the inflation curve, boosting the odds of harder-than-expected interest rate increases and asset sales by the monetary authority. For instance, an inflation "surprise" index from Citigroup rose in February for the first time in more than 12 months.

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D&D nukes NFT ban, ‘Kill-to-Earn’ zombie shooter, Illuvium: Zero hot take — Web3 Gamer

In this inaugural edition of Cointelegraph’s monthly Web3 gaming column, we highlight some of the top stories and events in the blockchain gaming space over the past few weeks, as well as upcoming releases.

Fortnite player sells Dookey Dash prize

It has been a little over a month since NFT behemoth Yuga Labs, the company behind Bored Ape Yacht Club (BAYC) and other top NFT collections, rolled out the skill-based game and NFT mint, Dookey Dash. 

Sent on a quest by a dog called Gary, players have to navigate through the sewers, dodging obstacles and collecting power-ups in pursuit of a golden key.

For three weeks, holders of Sewer Pass NFTs competed for the top spot on the leaderboard and different prizes. Though BAYC and sister collection Mutant Ape Yacht Club holders could claim a free pass, buying one wasn’t cheap. The floor price currently stands at 2.4 Ether (ETH) ($3,888)

That’s a lot to play Temple Run in a toilet.

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