Crypto News Week #27 – Trading Volume drops by 94% across NFT Marketplaces

Bitcoin worst month ever, Voyager halts withdrawal, Facebook launches NFT features, SaTT listed on JustMoney: These, and more in this week’s Crypto News.

Table of Contents

Top Crypto News Headlines Of The Week

Like a contagion, Voyager Digital has towed the footpath of 3AC and Celsius as it halts the withdrawal of user funds.
Meta continues to explore NFT utilities as Facebook launches NFT features for a select group of US creators.
The Crypto market slump bites harder as Bitcoin experiences its deepest negative monthly close.

Top Stories Of The Week

Voyager Digital freezes trading, deposits, withdrawals and rewards, blames 3AC default

A temporary suspension of trading, deposits, withdrawals and loyalty rewards was announced by the cryptocurrency exchange Voyager Digital on Friday. Stephen Ehrlich, CEO of Voyager Digital made the following comment on Twitter shortly after the service had been suspended. “The failure of a borrower, Three Arrows Capital, to repay a substantial loan from us makes this the right path forward.”

“This decision, while far from optimal, will give us time to work to strengthen our balance sheet, a necessary condition to protect assets and preserve the future of the Voyager platform we have built together,” Ehrlich went on. The company stated in a statement that it has hired Kirkland & Ellis to serve as its legal counsel, Moelis & Co., and the Consello Group as its financial advisers.

Three Arrows Capital, better known as 3AC, was served with a notice of default on Wednesday by Voyager Digital as a result of the Singaporean crypto hedge fund’s failure to repay a loan for 350 million USDC and 15,250 Bitcoin (BTC). Voyager promised that its activities will continue at the moment. The exchange claimed that in order to cover its exposure to the debts 3AC was unable to repay, it had tapped $75 million of a 15,000 BTC revolving loan it had obtained from Alameda Research. It said that it has $137 million in cash and cryptocurrencies on hand.

Shortly after Voyager Digital submitted its notice of default, a British Virgin Islands judge allegedly ordered 3AC to be liquidated. On June 16, Voyager had previously reported that 3AC had fallen short of margin requirements for that week.

Monthly NFT marketplace volumes fall 94% since the beginning of the year

Markets for non-fungible tokens (NFT) have seen a decline in trading volume, from $16.6 billion in January to over $1 billion in June of this year. This is a drop of 94%, as evidenced by statistics from The Block, highlighting exactly how severely the crypto bear market has affected NFT sales.

VXUQhyEJLoydTU VdETKM0UhFWN449S7mFbu00Ic LPYIp2Ka5OcVZpG21P4mhUuj89sUMZNle8CyrauYkkoCy4RJtd9mOla87VmLwtPd52Y8YAAgcg25CbCbG5TRINc1Ki20FIBD0Ow693pqN4

It should be emphasized that wash trading on the LooksRare NFT marketplace probably contributed significantly to the amount of NFT trade at the beginning of the year. Wash trading is when users exchange tokens with one another to artificially inflate prices.

Six months ago, it was believed that NFTs were immune to volatility in the crypto market. Some tokens, like the well-known Bored Ape Yacht Club, give users access to certain communities and events that maintain their worth even when the market is down.

NFT floor costs, however, have dropped recently, as The Block has reported, with prominent projects like BAYC, Doodles, and Cool Cats seeing drops of roughly 30%.

This Week’s Market Sentiment

Bitcoin price: June close barely beats 2017 high as Coinbase Premium flips positive

According to TradingView data, BTC/USD spiked up before the monthly closing on Bitstamp, which was $19,924. As a result, the pair narrowly missed posting its first-ever monthly closing below the record high of a previous halving cycle. In November 2017, Bitcoin hit an ATH of almost $19,770 on Bitstamp.

The market also recorded its biggest monthly losses since September 2011 — roughly 37.3%. As of the time of writing on July 1, BTC/USD had fallen to around $19,000. Philip Swift, an analyst and indicator developer at trading platform DecenTrader, summed up after-hours tweets in part: “Steadily carving out a cycle bottom here.”

Bitcoin’s decline coincided with the poor performance of US stocks. Commentators remarked that the S&P 500’s Q2 2022 was the worst since 1970 while the Nasdaq saw its lowest H1 since 1998.

“Adjusted for inflation, 2022 first-half S&P 500 down 25-26%, and Nasdaq down 34-35%, Bitcoin down 64-65%,”

Predictions, have they come true?

Prior to the end of the year, Burry predicted that U.S. monetary policy, which is now anchored on raising interest rates to combat inflation, will be compelled to alter its trajectory.

“Bottoming/accumulation signals everywhere, Major funds/lenders going bust, Worst quarter ever, Nocoiner haters dunking on us, the whole timeline saying this time is different,” William Clemente, lead insights analyst at Blockware, told Twitter followers:

Elsewhere, there was new proof among institutional investors that BTC was a “buy” at $20,000. On June 30, the so-called “Coinbase Premium” returned to positive territory for the first time in two months, according to the on-chain analytics platform CryptoQuant.

The Premium is the pricing difference between major exchange Binance and Coinbase Pro, the institutional division of U.S. exchange Coinbase. When this is true, it indicates that investors are willing to pay more for Coinbase Pro, which may indicate more demand. The Premium as of June 30 was 0.217.

Mainstream Adoption Of The Week

Facebook launches NFT feature for select group of US creators

After just one week following Mark Zuckerberg’s previous announcement, Meta has started rolling out a non-fungible token (NFT) functionality on Facebook.

The functionality will initially only be accessible to a small number of US-based creators. An approach similar to how the firm launched NFTs on Instagram one month ago. In addition to the disclosure of the move, Zuckerberg wrote on Facebook that the company is investigating 3D NFTs. Furthermore he stated that their research extends to augmented reality NFTs using its Spark AR software platform.

The news was also shared on Twitter on Wednesday by Navdeep Singh, product manager at Meta. According to Singh’s screenshots, Facebook NFTs will show up on a user’s profile under the “digital collectibles” page.

NFTs on Instagram is supported by the Polygon and Ethereum blockchains, with support for Solana and Flow coming shortly. Rainbow, MetaMask, and Trust Wallet are among the third-party wallets that are compatible with Instagram; Coinbase, Dapper, and Phantom will be available shortly. The same will apply to Facebook, a company representative told The Block.

According to a Facebook spokesperson, there is no set date for when this will be made more broadly available to users.

Exclusive From SaTT

New Listing – Share The News On Your Social Networks And Earn Crypto

SaTT has huge news this week to share with its prestigious community members as it marks yet another listing milestone. To celebrate this listing, SaTT has announced a brand new campaign to reward and thank users for their unwavering support.

Here’s how you can take part in the JustMoney x SaTT Campaign:

Make a Tweet about SaTT’s new listing on JustMoney
Mention @SaTT_Token & @JustMoneyIO
Include a picture of the campaign kit
Include #crypto #listing

See complete information here.

SaTT launches Tiktok Oracle

Last week, SaTT revealed that they have successfully launched a Tiktok oracle. This will enable more users to earn crypto With SaTT through Tiktok social networks.

Here’s a step guide if you’re interested in joining: