Crypto exchange Binance has announced that it would cease operations in Canada, citing the challenging regulatory environment, CoinDesk reports.
“We had high hopes for the rest of the Canadian blockchain industry,” the company said in a Friday tweet. “Unfortunately, new guidance related to stablecoins and investor limits provided to crypto exchanges makes the Canada market no longer tenable for Binance at this time.”
In February, the Canadian Securities Administrators (CSA) revealed new guidance that prohibited crypto asset trading platforms within the country from allowing customers to buy or deposit stablecoins without the CSA’s prior approval. Obtaining approval would require the crypto trading platform to pass the CSA’s various due diligence checks.
In its Friday tweet, Binance added that it did not agree with the new regulations but still hopes to work with Canadian regulators to further develop a regulatory framework around cryptocurrencies.
Over the past year, Binance has received increased scrutiny from North American regulators, and appears to be ramping down operations in the region. Earlier this year, Binance said it was considering severing ties with its U.S. business partners.
According to data from the cryptocurrency transaction tracker service Whale Alert, a transaction from a dormant address was spotted on the DOGE blockchain during the past day, BITCOINIST reports. This old address had carried 1,556,994 DOGE ($123,155) before its activation.
Detailed information about this wallet from the blockchain explorer service Blockchair reveals that the very first transfer this address made was on 23 December 2023.
Dogecoin had only launched earlier that month (6 December 2023), so the holder of this address must have been one of the earliest adopters of the cryptocurrency.
The frog-themed memecoin Pepe (PEPE) surged over 85% in the last 24 hours to surpass a $1 billion market cap three weeks after its launch on April 14, 2023, reports CoinTelegraph.
Ironically, the core value proposition of PEPE is that there isn’t one. The official website for the cryptocurrency features a disclaimer that describes investment in the token in the following manner:
“$PEPE is a meme coin with no intrinsic value or expectation of financial return. There is no formal team or roadmap. the coin is completely useless and for entertainment purposes only."
It’s worth noting that some of the top PEPE holders are centralized exchanges. However, according to data tracked by analyst “008.eth,”non-exchange PEPE whales have reduced positions recently, hinting at profit-taking that coincided with a price correction on May 3.
Crypto price tracking site CoinMarketCap is diving into the world of reality TV, releasing a competition show called "Killer Whales" that draws inspiration from the popular TV series Shark Tank, CoinDesk reports.
In partnership with Web3 entertainment company Hello Labs, the new program will allow entrepreneurs to pitch their projects to the "Killer Whale" judges made up of entrepreneurs, influencers and founders of Web3 companies. Hello Labs was founded by Paul Caslin, producer of the MTV VMA Awards.
“Killer Whales is a fun and exciting opportunity to bring the entrepreneurial energy of the Web3 space to homes all over the world," said Jonathan Isaac, chief marketing officer at CoinMarketCap, in a press release.
Standard Chartered said in a paper released on Monday that the price of Bitcoin may increase to as much as $100,000 by the end of 2024, signaling the end of the “crypto winter.”, BITCOINIST reports.
According to Geoff Kendrick, head of digital assets research at Standard Chartered, Bitcoin could benefit from recent turmoil in the banking sector, a stabilization of risk assets as the US Federal Reserve ends its interest rate-hiking cycle, and improved profitability of crypto mining.
While the cryptocurrency’s original goal of serving as a hedge against skyrocketing inflation last year was unsuccessful, it recently achieved success by serving as a wager against the traditional banking system.
A Satoshi-Era Bitcoin Whale has moved 400 BTC, worth around $11 Million after going 12 years without transactions, Watcher Guru reports.
Monday’s movements showed the whale moved 360 BTC ($9.8 million) to one wallet, and another 40 BTC to a number of other locations. 600 BTC remains in the wallet. This has become a common occurence recently, with whales “waking up” and moving their holdings after years of inactivity. Last week, it was recorded that a whale moved over 279 BTC, or $7.6 million, to new wallets after a decade of inactivity.
