Friday, 17th of June. As the week comes to an end, we can focus on the highlights of the crypto industry over the past few days.
The Fed hiked its key rate Bitcoin and Ethereum responded to it by soaring in price
The U.S. Federal Reserve raised its benchmark interest rate by 75 basis points at a time, to a range of 1.5-1.75%, following its meeting on June 14-15. The regulator holds such a steep rise of the index first since 1994.
Jerome Powell, head of the Fed, announced at a press conference following the FOMC meeting that the rate could be lifted by another 0.5%-0.75% this July.
“Over coming months, we will be looking for compelling evidence that inflation is moving down… The pace of those changes will continue to depend on the incoming data…Either a 50 or 75 basis point increase seems most likely at our next meeting,” Powell said.
In addition, the regulator also updated its economic forecasts to the downside. It is expected by the Fed that the U.S. GDP will gain 1.7% for the calendar year (previously the forecast estimate was 2.8%).
By and large, the market anticipated an uptick in the Fed’s key rate, as futures prices were predicting a 96% probability of the event occurring. Against the background of the announcement, the S&P 500 closed the June 15 trading session up nearly 1.5%, while the Dow Jones index was up 1%, according to TradingView.
The crypto market cap has rallied after the FOMC meeting as well. Over the past 24 hours bitcoin quotations climbed by 2.7%, while Ethereum increased by 4.7%. All digital assets from the top 10 by market cap proved to be in the green zone, based on CoinGecko.
Vulnerability discovered in older versions of the MetaMask
Security researchers at Halborn uncovered a flaw in most browser-based wallets, with MetaMask included. The trouble hits only a small part of the user base.
Experts have revealed a circumstance in which, under certain conditions, a Secret Recovery Phrase used by web wallets was extractable from a hacked computer’s drive.
Developers eliminated a weakness in MetaMask Extension 10.11.3 release.
What the MetaMask team noted was that the exploit is caused by the fact that browsers do not see physically accessed attacks as a threat so they store all text entries in the memory of the device. The only way to completely avoid the risk is to fully encrypt the disk.
Among other tips from the developers are cleaning the browser cache and making sure your computer is protected by antivirus.
“No wallet or software can keep itself safe if the system it runs on is compromised,” they noted.
Halborn was rewarded $50,000 for disclosing the vulnerability.
A major European bank issues its own digital token
KBC Group, a Belgian banking company, has released a digital token pegged to the euro, known as Kate Coin. It is designed to be used within the ecosystem of the organization and its partners.
According to the press release, Kate Coin appears to be a blockchain-based digital token developed exclusively by KBC. Individual customers may purchase stablecoin through the bank’s mobile app. The lending institution pointed out that the token has no value outside of the KBC ecosystem.
“The customer can acquire Kate Coins in function of a certain loyalty, at a certain product purchase, if he [or she] performs certain actions… And can use these KBC Coins again, e.g. for a discount on another KBC product,” explained Erik Luts, Chief Innovation Officer KBC Group.
KBC Group cautioned that tokens cannot be transferred to other users or exchanged for euros.
Kate Coin is backed by KBC reserves and pegged to the euro, but is “not bitcoin or stablecoin”. The company describes the tool as a “programmable digital coin.”
On June 19, the bank will put the token to the test at the Werchter Boutique music festival. KBC employees would be able to pay for snacks and drinks with a Kate Coin.
It is one of the largest banking organizations in Europe. It managed approximately ~€340.34 billion in assets by the end of 2021.
Elon Musk, Tesla and SpaceX sued for $258 billion due to running Dogecoin promotion
Keith Johnson accused SpaceX and Tesla and their head, Elon Musk, of pushing the pyramid scheme in the form of Dogecoin (DOGE) cryptocurrency. The plaintiff seeks $258 billion in compensatory and punitive damages, Bloomberg reports.
“Defendants falsely and deceptively claim that Dogecoin is a legitimate investment when it has no value at all,” stated the lawsuit filed in federal court in Manhattan (S.D.N.Y.).
Johnson seeks to protect the rights of a group of individuals who have lost money trading or investing in DOGE since April 2019.
The claimant seeks damages of $86 billion and triple compensation of $172 billion. He also asks to prohibit Musk and his companies from distributing Dogecoin, as well as to proclaim that trading in this crypto is “gambling”.
Musk vigorously promoted the meme cryptocurrency. Back in April 2022, the entrepreneur proposed lowering the subscription cost of Twitter Blue and letting users pay for the premium experience in DOGE.