The second week of May (8th to 14th) was an exciting time for JPEX traders as the exchange announced that PEPE derivatives trading has been included in their EARN section.
As a result, traders can earn decent yields within 1, 7, 15, and 30 days of investment. Within the period, the largest digital asset by market capitalization Bitcoin (BTC) dropped below $27,000 due to market liquidity issues while cryptocurrency exchange Bittrex filed for bankruptcy on the back of criticism from the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) of the United States of America.
Just as you thought the adoption of crypto platforms was soaring, Binance announced that it is leaving Canada due to extensive regulatory demands making it difficult for the firm to remain operational in the country.
Staying on the negatives, the governor of the Central Bank of Ireland has repeated the stance of several agencies on Bitcoin and cryptocurrencies as a whole by labelling them as Ponzi schemes.
Below is an in-depth look into the news that made rounds across the crypto market during the week.
Bitcoin led a bearish market engulfing due to liquidity issues
During the start of the week, the total market capitalization of the entire cryptocurrency economy was around $1.15 trillion and stood at about $1.08 trillion around the closing days of the week.
Much of this came from the fall of BTC below $27,000. As of writing, BTC was exchanging hands for $26,806.36 and was down by 15% in daily trading volume, data from crypto price tracker CoinMarketCap showed. Much of the fall was attributed to two crypto companies called Jump Crypto and Jane Street that decided to step back from trading crypto in the U.S. due to the miring of regulation across the decentralized finance sector.
Since BTC leads the industry in gains and losses, others such as Ethereum (ETH), Binance Coin (BNB), Ripple (XRP), Cardano (ADA), Dogecoin (DOGE), Solana (SOL), and Polygon (MATIC) were all in red impacting the portfolios of JPEX traders negatively.
Despite this, analysts at Changelly forecast BTC to reach $40,085 by the end of 2023.
Binance moves out of Canada due to new regulations
Binance has been dealing with regulatory problems across several countries across the globe. One of such countries is Canada.
On Friday, May 12, Binance tweeted “Unfortunately, today we are announcing that Binance will be joining other prominent crypto businesses in proactively withdrawing from the Canadian marketplace.” This comes a few days after the Ontario Securities Commission laid out a series of new guidelines for exchanges interested in remaining operational in the country.
Most of the guidelines focused on mandatory registrations and investor limits.
Although Chanpeng Zhao and his team are pulling out, the exchange remains open to serving Canadians in the future. “While we do not agree with the new guidance, we hope to continue to engage with Canadian regulators aimed at a thoughtful, comprehensive regulatory framework. We are confident that we will someday return to the market when Canadian users once again have the freedom to access a broader suite of digital assets,” Binance added.
Bitcoin is a Ponzi Scheme, Irish Central Bank Governor Fires
Bitcoin’s use cases cannot be questioned but its private nature has also made it the digital currency of choice for cybercriminals.
Gabriel Makhlouf, head of the apex bank of Ireland has cautioned citizens of the country about the risks associated with engaging with cryptocurrencies.
He said that Bitcoin is not an investment but rather a Ponzi scheme that has been set up to dupe millions of people (including Irish people) of their hard-earned money.
Moving away from individual sentiments, the Central Bank has approved the European Union’s Markets in Crypto Assets Regulation in what has been described as the first step global bodies have taken to bring some form of regulation to the entire decentralized finance economy.
The MiCA will be fully implemented in 2025.
Bittrex filed for insolvency after a complaint from SEC
On Monday, May 8, Bittrex filed for bankruptcy. This came on the back of pressure from the SEC which labeled the exchange with operating what it called an unregistered securities exchange.
The latest bankruptcy news comes six (6) months after Sam Bankman-Fried’s FTX filed for bankruptcy which took the entire market south.
While Bittrex has vehemently denied the regulatory body’s stance on its operations, many exchanges could soon follow since most of the thousands of cryptocurrencies popping up across all areas of the crypto economy lack real-world use cases.