The stablecoin is issued by a registered trust owned by First Digital.
First Digital Group announced today that it’s launching a USD stablecoin, FDUSD.
The stablecoin is issued on Ethereum and BNB, a spokesperson told CoinDesk, saying that First Digital is in discussions with all major exchanges for a listing.
First Digital says FDUSD is backed by “high-quality reserves” of cash and cash equivalents in regulated financial institutions around Asia, and will be issued by First Digital Trust, a trust company registered under Hong Kong’s Trust Ordinance.
Part of the requirements of Hong Kong’s Trust Ordinance is to keep all reserves in segregated accounts, which prevents co-mingling of assets.
“The launch of this stablecoin represents a major stride forward in our mission to provide a secure and efficient digital currency that can be seamlessly integrated into everyday transactions,” Vincent Chok, CEO of First Digital, said in a release.
But as the stablecoin launches, it won’t be available to retail users in Hong Kong.
Regulators in Hong Kong have said that stablecoins should not be allowed for public trading by retail investors until the proposed rules for this asset class are officially implemented in the territory.
As CoinDesk reported in February, The Hong Kong Monetary Authority (HKMA), the special administrative region’s central bank, and one of its financial regulators are weighing new regulations for stablecoins, which could mandate local incorporation, require real-world asset backing (disallowing algorithmic stablecoins) and mandating separate operations for issuers and virtual asset exchanges.
It’s not yet clear when these regulations will kick in.
The initial vesting period for early investors and contributors ends today and will nearly double the circulating supply of the tokens.
Tokens worth over $587 million of Ethereum scaling protocol Optimism are set to be released into the open market on Tuesday as part of a planned unlock plan, leading to prices of OP tokens falling 7%.
When tokens are “unlocked,” their holders are then able to sell or swap that token if they wish to do so.
The more than 386 million optimism tokens are currently held by early contributors and investors, and the move will nearly double OP’s circulating supply – which stands at 335 million tokens on Tuesday morning.
Early investors are likely sitting on significant gains and could choose to take profits, contributing to immense selling pressure. As such, immediately available liquidity on OP token pairs across decentralized and centralized exchanges is under $10 million – and a single sell order of $600,000 could dunk prices 2% further on Binance.
The unlock comes as OP tokens have been on a general downturn since February this year, sliding from $3 to $1.5 even as bitcoin (BTC) and ether (ETH) gained at least 50% in that period.
OP trades at $1.50 as of Tuesday, with a trading volume of $103 million over the past 24 hours.
Volumes surged from just over $1 million at the start of May to $18 million on Tuesday, data from Minswap shows.
Transaction volumes on Cardano-based decentralized exchange (DEX) Minswap spiked over the past few days as traders likely scoured the network for profit opportunities on meme coins.
Volumes surged from just over $1 million at the start of May to $18 million on Tuesday, data from Minswap shows. Minswap is the largest application on Cardano by locked value, holding 37% of over $175 million worth of tokens held on the network.
Volumes and TVL bumped on Minswap. (Minswap)
Such activity could bolster prices of Minswap’s min (MIN) tokens, which accrue value from platform usage and are used as a governance token.
A significant part of the increased volumes came from Cardano-based meme coins snek (SNEK) and bank (BANK). Prices of the two tokens surged as much as 34% in the past 24 hours, data shows, with a cumulative $40 million traded on Minswap alone.
The surge pushed snek to a market capitalization of $80 million on Tuesday morning, making it the eighth-largest meme coin by that metric.
Temasek wrote down the entirety of its investment in FTX in November.
Singapore’s Temasek Holdings, one of its sovereign wealth funds, has pledged to take “collective accountability” for its failed $275 million investment in collapsed crypto exchange FTX.
In a statement released Monday morning, the fund said there was “fraudulent conduct intentionally hidden from investors, including Temasek.”
“Although there was no misconduct by the investment team in reaching their investment recommendation, the investment team and senior management, who are ultimately responsible for investment decisions made, took collective accountability and had their compensation reduced,” Temasek Chairman Lim Boon Heng said in a statement posted to its website.
Days after FTX collapsed in November, the fund said it had written off the entirety of its investment. In November, Temasek said that the $210 million investment, which accounted for 1% of FTX International, and $65 million for 1.5% of FTX.US, represented 0.09% of the firm’s net portfolio value of $293.5 billion (SGD 403 billion) from last year.
At the time, Temasek claimed that it did eight months of due diligence on FTX, reviewing its audited financial statements, analyzing regulatory risk, and cyber security threats.
Post-FTX, Temasek said that intends to refine its investment appraisal procedure, especially for rapidly growing firms.
Temasek reiterated that it does not plan to invest in cryptocurrencies and said it will be cautious when considering new investments in the blockchain space.
FTX was the only investment Temasek had in a crypto exchange.
During the heydays of FTX it was accessible to users based in Singapore, while Binance, its chief rival, was blocked.
The Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) added Binance to the Investor Alert List in September 2021, yet made no such move on Binance. MAS later said this was because Binance directly solicited Singaporean customers, and offered trades in Singapore dollar, which was not the case for FTX.
Version 2 of Jimbos protocol was attacked over the weekend for $7.3 million, just days after going live.
Developers behind the Arbitrum-based Jimbos Protocol are gauging the best way for the project to move forward after its version 2 (V2) faced a $7.5 million exploit over the weekend.
Jimbos said it was working with security researchers to reclaim lost funds – the same people who’ve previously helped Euler Finance recover over $200 million – and added that they would contact law enforcement by 4 P.M. UTC on Monday if the attacker failed to return the money.
Jimbos lost 4,090 ether (ETH) late on Saturday, which security analysts blamed on the lack of slippage control in the main contract. This allowed the yet-unidentified attackers to take out a $5.9 million flash loan, manipulate the prices of jimbo (JIMBO), and walk out with treasury funds.
The protocol planned to issue a semi-stable token backed by a basket of crypto tokens, alluring traders to this concept as similar projects have seen brief success.
Flash loans are a popular way for attackers to gain funds to conduct exploits on decentralized finance (DeFi) systems. The loans allow traders to borrow unsecured funds from lenders using smart contracts instead of third parties.
These do not require any collateral because the contract considers the transaction complete only when the borrower repays the lender – meaning a borrower defaulting on a flash loan would cause the smart contract to cancel the transaction, and the money would be returned to the lender.
Meanwhile, JIMBO, its token, traded at nearly 18 cents on Monday, slightly recovering in Asian morning hours as developers floated their protective plans.
Floki prices rallied on Sunday amid a bitcoin-led market push and bets on the token’s “China narrative.”
Floki (FLOKI) spiked over 10% on Sunday and saw its highest trading volumes in over three weeks as traders bet on the tokens amid a China-focused push for its Valhalla metaverse game.
Trading volumes for the tokens, which are fashioned after the Shiba Inu dog breed, jumped to over $60 million, up from last week’s $25 million average. The spike comes as ads for its Floki game featured in some Chinese sporting tournaments. This could have attracted some speculators who hypothesized that the move might attract new traders from China.
In a tweet, Floki developers said they saw an influx of Chinese-based community members on their social media groups.
Floki previously said it was targeting China in its latest push toward attracting more users for its Valhalla game, as previously reported. The game’s content and technical documents will be available in both traditional Chinese and simplified Chinese and are specifically targeted toward the Chinese gaming market, developers added at the time.
The “China narrative” has caught on among some on Crypto Twitter ahead of lax laws for retail trading in Hong Kong, driving up prices of some Asia-focused tokens, such as conflux (CFX) in the past few weeks.
Starting June 1, Hong Kong will allow traders to invest in some tokens, such as bitcoin, ether and solana, on regulated exchanges in the country. Traders are not allowed to hold any stablecoins, but the move has fuelled sentiment that wealthy Chinese speculators could soon plough money into the crypto markets.
“While most major economies are expected to slow down this year, the Chinese economy is projected to grow strongly,” said Floki core developer @100bviking in a Twitter message to CoinDesk. “J.P. Morgan projects a 4% GDP growth for China in 2023; that’s 2.5 times more than what is projected for the global economy and 4 times more than projected US economic growth.”
“This strong growth will spill over into crypto, especially with Hong Kong legalizing crypto in a few days’ time which is a sign of China warming up to crypto. There is a very high probability that China will drive the next crypto bull run,” @100bviking added.
The move is part of an initiative to drive demand for block space, which help add to the value proposition of FTM tokens.
Fantom blockchain will reward projects that utilize its network and contribute toward high usage of gas fees in a bid to drive increased demand for block space, developers said Sunday in a tweet.
Eligible applications will be rewarded 15% of the gas fees they produce, providing developers with marginal extra income.
This is part of a planned move called the “dApp Gas Monetization Program,” which passed a community governance vote earlier this year.
That proposal sought to reduce fantom’s current burn rate in order to redirect more network fees directly to applications building on Fantom. Now that it has passed, the implementation will reduce Fantom’s burn rate from 20% to 5% and redirect the 15% reduction toward gas monetization.
This gas monetization will reward in-demand applications, retain developers and is said to help support Fantom’s network infrastructure.
Gas refers to a type of fee paid by blockchain users in the native token of that blockchain, such as fantom (FTM) in this case. Fees on Fantom are fractions of a few cents per transaction, but add up to a significant amount over time – one that is borne by the users of Fantom-based projects.
Data shows some projects are already benefiting from the monetization program just hours after its Sunday implementation.
Cross-chain bridge Stargate Finance has been 8,300 FTM, worth just over $2,600 at current prices. Decentralized exchange SpookySwap earned 978 FTM, or just over $300.
Short-term holders’ renewed profitability is a positive signal for near-term price action, according to on observer.
Bitcoin’s (BTC) near-term outlook appears constructive as blockchain data show short-term holders of the cryptocurrency are moving coins at a profit.
The seven-day moving average of the short-term holder’s (STH) spent output profit ratio (SOPR) has recently moved back above 1, according to blockchain analytics firm Glassnode.
“After a brief stint of coins moving at a loss, STH-SOPR is now back above 1,” analysts at Blockware Solutions said in a weekly newsletter. “This is bullish for near-term price action as it shows capitulation from short-term holders.”
The short-term holder SOPR of more than 1 means the average short-term holder in the market is selling coins at a profit. A reading below 1 is considered a sign of capitulation, while a reading of 1 indicates the average short-term holder is just breaking even.
The SOPR is calculated by dividing the realized dollar value of a spent output (UTXO) by the value at output creation to reflect the degree of realized profit for all coins moved on-chain. The short-term holder SOPR is focused on all wallets that have held onto their coins for less than 155 days.
The STH SOPR has historically stayed above 1 during bull markets. That’s understandable, as rallies allow short-term holders – mostly new entrants, active traders or weak hands – to liquidate their holdings at a price higher than the acquisition cost.
Besides, the area around 1 tends to act as a support level during bull runs, as holders, expecting continued price rallies, see their cost basis as a profitable buying opportunity. On the flip side, level 1 acts as resistance during bearish trends.
The SOPR has moved above 1 (Glassnode) (CoinDesk/Glassnode)
The STH SOPR crossed above 1 in January, signaling a bullish trend reversal and has since tested the support twice. Bitcoin has rallied over 68% this year, according to CoinDesk data. At press time, the cryptocurrency was trading near $27,900, having put in a high of $28,441 during the overnight trade, CoinDesk data show.
Bitcoin’s long-term holders also turned profitable a month ago, signaling a major bullish period ahead.
The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission alleged the two entities had sold unregistered securities through Gemini’s Earn program.
Bankrupt crypto lender Genesis Global Capital and exchange platform Gemini are asking a U.S. court to dismiss a lawsuit by the Securities and Exchange Commission alleging the two sold unregistered securities, court filings from Friday show.
The SEC, in a lawsuit filed in January to a New York court, targeted Gemini’s yield-bearing product Earn, an unregistered offering through which the regulator alleged the two entities “raised billions of dollars’ worth of crypto assets from hundreds of thousands of investors.”
“As alleged in the complaint, Genesis then exercised its discretion in how to use investors’ crypto assets to generate revenue and pay interest to Gemini Earn investors,” the SEC said in its complaint. Genesis, like CoinDesk, is owned by the Digital Currency Group (DCG).
While with the Earn program “the borrower and lender could choose to engage in subsequent transactions,” Gemini said in Friday’s filings that “it did not itself require any lending or borrowing by any party, and there was no way for a lender to transfer or assign it without the affirmative consent of all parties.”
Gemini further alleged the SEC’s treatment of the tri-party Master Digital Asset Loan Agreement (MDALA) contract between Genesis, Gemini and Earn users as an unregistered security “has no basis in law or fact.”
The SEC failed to “adequately plead” MDALA was a security and failed “to make non-conclusory allegations that the MDALA was sold to anyone, or that any party offered to sell it,” the document supporting a motion to dismiss said.
In its original complaint, the SEC noted Genesis held around $900 million in assets belonging to some 340,000 Gemini Earn investors, when it froze withdrawals from the platform in November shortly before filing for bankruptcy protection in the U.S.
“We allege that Genesis and Gemini offered unregistered securities to the public, bypassing disclosure requirements designed to protect investors,” SEC Chair Gary Gensler said at the time. Gemini co-founder Tyler Winklevoss fired back at the suit, calling it a “manufactured parking ticket.”
A technical analysis indicator called Bollinger bandwidth suggests dogecoin’s unusual calm could soon end with a pronounced move in either direction.
Dogecoin (DOGE), the meme cryptocurrency known for its rapid price moves, has been unusually calm this year, underperforming market leaders bitcoin (BTC) and ether (ETH) by a significant margin.
One technical analysis indicator called Bollinger bandwidth suggests it may be the calm before the storm.
The indicator illustrates periods of varying volatility relative to the price gyrations and is calculated by dividing the spread between the Bollinger bands by the 20-day simple moving average (SMA) of the cryptocurrency’s price. Bollinger bands are volatility lines placed two standard deviations above and below the 20-day SMA average of prices.
Periods of rising volatility are marked by a sharp increase in the distance between the two bands and the widening of the bandwidth. Conversely, the two bands contract and the width narrows or declines during a volatility lull.
An usually wide or high bandwidth indicates the ongoing bullish/bearish trend is nearing an end. Meanwhile, an unusually low bandwidth suggests “the market may be about to initiate a pronounced move in either direction, as Fidelity
When the bandwidth is too high, it’s a sign the current bullish/bearish trend may be ending. Meanwhile, an unusually low bandwidth suggests the market may be about to exit a consolidation pattern with a pronounced move in either direction, as Fidelity’s explainer says.
Dogecoin’s daily chart shows the bands have recently tightened, pushing the bandwidth down to 0.06, the lowest since February 2019, according to TradingView.
The Bollinger bands have recently tightening, pushing the bandwidth to lowest in over four years. (TradingView/CoinDesk) (TradingView/CoinDesk)
So, dogecoin could soon see a volatility explosion in line with the bandwidth’s tendency to alternate between expansion and contraction. Note that the impending volatility explosion is agnostic to price direction, meaning the big move can be bearish or bullish.
At press time, dogecoin traded near $0.073. The world’s leading meme cryptocurrency, currently valued at $10.22 billion, has risen just 3% this year. Meanwhile, market leaders bitcoin and ether have gained 68% and 60% respectively, per CoinDesk data.
