Category: Cryptocurrency News

In a notable discovery, Arkham Intel, a leading blockchain intelligence platform, has identified $25 billion worth of Bitcoin (BTC) reserves held by Coinbase, the prominent US-based cryptocurrency exchange.  This revelation puts Coinbase at the forefront of the Bitcoin landscape, positioning it as the largest Bitcoin entity in the world alongside the enigmatic Satoshi Nakamoto. The uncovered reserves amount to nearly 5% of the total Bitcoin supply. Coinbase Emerges As Top Bitcoin Holder Arkham Intel’s comprehensive analysis has successfully tagged over 36 million Bitcoin deposits and holding addresses associated with Coinbase. Remarkably, Coinbase’s largest cold wallet alone contains around 10,000 BTC, serving as a testament to the scale of their holdings. Related Reading: This Bitcoin Chart Mirrors Sinister 2019 Shadow: Retrace To $20,000 On The Horizon? However, Arkham Intel suggests that Coinbase’s actual Bitcoin reserves may extend beyond the identified addresses. Based on Coinbase’s recent financial reports, it is highly likely that the exchange possesses thousands more BTC that have yet to be tracked and labeled. Moreover, Arkham Intel’s platform reveals that Coinbase holds substantial amounts of other cryptocurrencies beyond Bitcoin.  The US-based exchange is reported to possess approximately 1.68 million ETH (Ethereum) valued at around $2.69 billion. Additionally, Coinbase holds 68.59 million LINK (Chainlink) tokens, estimated at $471 million.  The stablecoin USDC (USD Coin), pegged 1:1 to the US dollar, is also part of Coinbase’s portfolio, with holdings totaling 222 million USDC. Lastly, Coinbase holds a 921,000 BNB (Binance Coin) valued at approximately $194 million. Base Emerges As Top Contender Surpassing Solana In TVL Rankings In a noteworthy development for the exchange and its new Layer-2 (L2) blockchain, Base has emerged as a formidable contender, surpassing Solana in terms of Total Value Locked (TVL).  According to the latest statistics from Defillama, Base, Coinbase’s L2 solution boasts a TVL of $370 million, surpassing Solana’s $310 million. This achievement signifies an important milestone for Base, highlighting its growing prominence and influence in the industry. Notably, Base’s TVL positions it ahead of prominent blockchains such as Cronos, Kava, Defichain, Bitcoin, Fusion, Pulsechain, and Cardano. With its current TVL, Base accounts for approximately 0.96% of the overall $38.14 billion TVL in the DeFi space. Base has secured its place among the top protocols regarding TVL, ranking just behind Mixin, Polygon, Avalanche, Optimism, Arbitrum, BSC, Tron, and Ethereum. This accomplishment highlights the growing prominence of Coinbase’s L2 blockchain within the DeFi landscape. Related Reading: Privacy For All: Brave To Integrate Zcash Protocol On Native Crypto Wallet Data from Dune Analytics reveals that since its L2 launch, Base has successfully bridged a total value of $426.81 million. Of this, 54.4% or $232.19 million comprises 143,467 ether, demonstrating strong support and adoption from the Ethereum community. Additionally, approximately 27.2% of the bridged assets to Base consist of 115,993,548 USDC stablecoins. However, it is not all good news for the firm. Coinbase stocks, traded under the name COIN, are experiencing a significant decline that has been ongoing since July 20.  The stocks have declined from the $111 level, followed by the lawsuit filed by the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) against the firm and Binance. Presently, the exchange’s stocks are trading at $71.78. Featured image from iStock, chart from TradingView.com 

Prometheum was purportedly “purpose-built to comply with federal securities laws” and has avoided lawsuits from the SEC when compared with firms like Binance and Coinbase.

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Polkadot, a platform aiming to drive blockchain interoperability, wants to increase the number of parachains from 100 to 1,000 in a planned upgrade. The network, which remains one of the most valuable by market cap, has, like most layer 1 networks, suffered from dropping user activity over the past months.  DOT Is Down Over 90% The dip follows the crypto winter in 2022. However, the upcoming upgrade might catalyze demand, even supporting DOT, the native currency. DOT is changing hands at $4 at spot rates, down by over 90% when prices soared to as high as $55 in the last bull market. Even though the contraction has significantly impacted prices, other altcoins, including Solana and Algorand, suffered the same fate.  Even so, with the Asynchronous backing update, whether DOT will find support is yet to be seen. The reveal on September 21 didn’t move DOT, and the coin is edging lower, towards 2023 lows. Related Reading: Privacy For All: Brave To Integrate Zcash Protocol On Native Crypto Wallet Polkadot developers are now setting their eyes on Asynchronous backing. Sophia Gold, the Engineering Lead at Parity Technologies, said the update is “the most significant evolution of parachain consensus since we launched parachains almost two years ago.” Their goal is to increase the number of parachains to 1,000 by the end of 2024, effectively boosting the network’s transaction processing speeds to over 1 million. Asynchronous backing enables flexible scheduling for our future scaling work through elastic scaling and instantaneous core time. We have a credible roadmap to get Polkadot to support 1,000 parachains and 1m+ transactions per second. The design is there – we know how to scale Polkadot for the indefinite future. The Asynchronous Backing: What It Means For Polkadot With this update, Polkadot is introducing a feature called “pipelining.” This means multiple parachain blocks can be processed simultaneously instead of waiting for one block to be fully validated and included on the relay chain before moving on to the next one.  Accordingly, Polkadot would process more transactions every second at any instance, effectively scaling the network without relying on layer-2 solutions common in Ethereum or Bitcoin, for example. Since “pipelining” will enhance throughput, Polkadot will have a higher capacity. For this reason, the developer plans to half blockchain validation time from 12 to 6 seconds.  Related Reading: This Bitcoin Chart Mirrors Sinister 2019 Shadow: Retrace To $20,000 On The Horizon? A key feature about Asynchronous backing is that any parachain block that fails to be added to the “relay chain” on the first attempt can be reused. Developers note that this will significantly improve network efficiency due to reduced wastage. It is the combination of pipelining and reusing of parachain blocks that Polkadot developers say opens the door for the number of Parachains to be increased from the current 100 to 1,000. With enhanced on-chain scalability, running more parachains can be more feasible. Feature image from Canva, chart from TradingView

This week’s Crypto Biz explores SVB Capital bids, new funds from Blockchain Capital, the Hut 8-US Bitcoin merger and Citigroup’s private blockchain.

To expand its derivatives business overseas, Coinbase attempted to acquire FTX Europe twice since it filed for bankruptcy in November 2022.

The former FTX.US president founded the company in January to serve institutional investors in crypto and traditional derivatives.

Recently, Binance, one of the world’s leading crypto exchanges, witnessed an unusual pattern of withdrawals. Particularly, 4.7 million LINK tokens, equivalent to roughly $31.58 million, were suddenly withdrawn over a brief period by 81 newly minted wallets.  The event is noteworthy due to the large number of tokens moved and the swift, simultaneous action across newly created accounts. This pattern of withdrawals raises questions about the strategies and intentions behind these movements and what they could spell for the token, LINK. Related Reading: LINK Price Prediction: Chainlink Recovery Stalls But Not Likely Over A Timeline Of The Puzzling LINK Withdrawals On September 18, 2023, Lookonchain, an on-chain analytics platform, identified a bizarre spree of LINK withdrawals. Initially, the observation was limited to approximately 35 new wallets on Binance that had extracted 755,687 LINK, valued at roughly $5.08 million. However, in just a day, the number of LINK tokens and the participating wallets increased, culminating in 81 wallets drawing out 4.7 million tokens. It is worth noting that for those who follow the pulse of the cryptocurrency market, such huge withdrawals, especially from new wallets, don’t go unnoticed and could hint at the beginning of a bullish trend.  There are a total of 81 fresh wallets created on Sept 15 started withdrawing $LINK from #Binance on Sept 18. And these wallets have withdrawn a total of 4.7M $LINK ($31.58M) from #Binance so far. Details: https://t.co/hSdkoncNgZhttps://t.co/AzUM8VleQQ pic.twitter.com/4IxdSHtv6C — Lookonchain (@lookonchain) September 22, 2023 The details were further elaborated in a Google document shared by Lookonchain, which itemized every transaction, breaking down the amount of tokens withdrawn and their equivalent value in US dollars. Among these transactions, the most substantial withdrawal saw a single wallet moving 280,567.67 LINK, translating to $1.88 million—moreover, four of these accounts extracted over 200,000 tokens over the monitored period. The list also highlighted that all the wallets had withdrawn only 5,000 LINK tokens. Decoding The Implications For Chainlink Given the sequence of events, Lookonchain hypothesized that there might be an ongoing whale accumulation. To Clarify, ‘whale accumulation’ refers to large-volume holders or “whales” acquiring a significant amount of cryptocurrency, typically indicative of their bullish sentiment. However, it’s essential to approach such hypotheses with a balanced perspective. While the intent behind these transactions remains elusive, the broader implications for Chainlink and its native token, LINK cannot be ignored. Such movements could influence market sentiment, either buoying confidence among potential investors or creating cautionary tales for the more risk-averse. But as with all crypto dynamics, one event seldom dictates the long-term trajectory.  Related Reading: Chainlink: Analyst’s Vision Of A 20% Rally And How It Could Happen Meanwhile, LINK currently trades for $6.74 at the time of writing. The asset has been up by nearly 10% in the past week and currently has a market cap of $3.7 billion and a 24-hour trading volume of $146.8 million. Featured image from iStock, Chart from TradingView