Here comes Friday, March 29th. As the ongoing week elapses, we can focus on the industry highlights over the past few days.
Memecoins feel as the next ‘Trojan Horse’, Messari says
Meme tokens are to remain a vital part of the crypto industry and they will potentially evolve into a new asset class, according to The Block, citing Messari Vice President Maartje Bus, who said that at the BUIDL Asia conference.
“Crypto is often criticized for not having use cases for the average Joe, and that is a fair comment,” Bus explained. “But memecoins actually have been successful, consistently, in bringing people on-chain.”
In his view, such tokens boast a number of appealing features for investors, not to mention their focus on entertainment. He described the ongoing rally as a “full-swing memecoin mania” fueled by the bull cycle following the not-quite-recent approval of spot bitcoin ETFs.
Messari VP referred to these emerging assets as a way to monetize people’s attention, which could effortlessly be turned into a prediction market for tokens based on US election candidates in particular.
Memecoins can also be seen as a “long-tail speculative service” similar to lottery tickets or cheap stocks.
Over 94500 BTC moved by 5th-richest Bitcoin whale
On March 23, the fifth largest crypto wallet in terms of stored Bitcoins transferred more than $6B worth of BTC to three new addresses. Such a big news was spotted by experts at 5Arkham Intelligence.
This wallet has been holding 94,500 BTC untouched for 5 years, since 2019. Outgoing transactions totaled $5.03 billion, $561.46 million, and $488.4 million each. Only 1.4 BTC remain on the wallet in question.
Speaking of the price of the first-ever crypto, it went through the roof – surpassing the $71,000 mark again as early as March 26 caused by the high demand among institutional investors. Quotes have corrected to levels below $70,000 as at the time of writing.
According to observations provided by Santiment, BTC’s rebound took place amid the asset hoarding by large investors.
IMF deems CBDCs and other stablecoins as beneficial for remote countries
Central bank digital currencies (CBDCs) and the rest of the stablecoins will boost Pacific Island nations in terms of improving the availability and quality of financial services, as reported by the International Monetary Fund (IMF).
Experts note the challenges faced by dozens of jurisdictions and micro-states located in the Pacific Islands region:
“Limited and unequal access to financial services contributes to persistent poverty and inequality. The countries also are highly dependent on remittance flows, which makes them disproportionately impacted by diminishing correspondent banking relationships.”
Such states can enjoy the so-called “digital money revolution” by refining the existing payment systems and introducing blockchain technology, thereby stimulating their own economies.
The report is mainly focused on CBDCs, although the organization does allow for the use of some stablecoins.
KuCoin eyed ceasing and selling back in 2023
Media outlets report that KuCoin, one of the world’s leading crypto exchanges, was considering selling its business throughout 2023. Accused of laundering $9 billion, the platform has faced a criminal investigation by the New York State (NYS) Attorney General’s Office and has also caught the eye of Chinese authorities.
Journalist Colin Wu reports that information about the potential sale of KuCoin has been shared with several other exchanges, including Binance.
According to Scopescan, over the past 24 hours, outflows from KuCoin on the Ethereum network alone have exceeded $800 million. The exchange’s assets are valued at $4.8 billion.
However, KuCoin officials claim the DEX keeps operating, with users’ assets safe and secure.