Crypto Daily News from ZBG Exchange

ZBG
6 min readSep 17, 2021

1. Market Wrap: Bitcoin Traders Take Profits Amid Regulatory Crackdowns

Derivative markets are displaying signs of uncertainty, and concerns about regulation are rising.

It’s been a quiet week in crypto markets as prices consolidate after last week’s sell-off. Returns have been mixed, especially among alternative cryptocurrencies, with Solana’s SOL token down about 19% over the past week due to network failures, compared with a 34% gain in Avalanche’s AVAX token that was driven by the network’s latest $230 million funding round.

Bitcoin was trading at about $47,000 at press time and is up 6% over the past week. Some analysts expect BTC to consolidate over the short term as the broader uptrend remains intact.

“The combination of fundamental metrics presented on-chain, bullish technical indicators and soft macro picture allows us to confirm our view of a bullish run through the remainder of the year,” FundStrat, a global advisory firm, wrote in a Wednesday report. “We are buyers of BTC and ETH into any near-term selling.”

Regulation, however, remains a headwind for cryptocurrencies. Last week, El Salvador’s Court of Accounts received a complaint from a human rights organization regarding the government’s handling of bitcoin purchases and crypto ATMs. Opposition to the country’s bitcoin law has been vocal with protests across the capital.

And on Thursday, Bloomberg reported that the U.S. Treasury Department is preparing a report on stablecoins and their potential risks to the financial system.

Latest Prices

Bitcoin (BTC), $47,516, +0.1%

Ether (ETH), $3,421, -4.0%

S&P 500: -0.9%

Gold: $1,752, -0.1%

10-year Treasury yield closed at 1.378%

Market uncertainty

Similar to the spot market, the bitcoin options and futures market has also been relatively stable, albeit with some signs of caution.

“We’ve seen healthy spot buying demand in BTC, ETH and altcoins on the desk,” wrote crypto trading firm QCP Capital in a Telegram chat. “But we’ve also seen decent profit-taking in calls at current levels — mixed signals.”

A cautious stance among traders is apparent from the positive one-week and one-month bitcoin put-call skews, which measure the cost of puts — or bearish bets — relative to calls, which are bullish bets. The positive values imply that traders are seeking short-term downside protection.

2. Christie’s to Sell Some of the Earliest NFTs — And Only for ETH

A full set of 31 Curio Cards — including a misprint — is expected to fetch between $870,000 and $1.3 million.

Christie’s is listing a set of 31 Curio Cards and several other prominent non-fungible token (NFT) projects in a live auction on Oct. 1, furthering its foray into digital art sales.

The 254-year-old auction house made history in March when it auctioned a Beeple NFT for $69 million. Christie’s Asia branch is now taking bids for several rare CryptoPunks and Bored Ape NFTs as recent buyer appetite for NFTs approaches manic levels.

Launched in May 2017, Curio Cards is commonly viewed as the first digital art collectible on the Ethereum blockchain, predating both CryptoPunks and CryptoKitties. The set depicts images ranging from mundane objects (#1 Apples) to reimagined corporate logos (#15 DigitalCash) to intricate black-and-white geometric drawings (#26 Education).

“A true full set of Curio Cards is one of the few holy grails as far as art projects on Ethereum go,” said Noah Davis, head of digital art at Christie’s. “It’s the first of its kind, predating Punks, even.”

The set of 31 numbered cards — including the misprinted #17b — is estimated to fetch between 250 and 350 ETH, or between $870,000 and $1.3 million based on current prices of ether.

3. New Jersey Piles On: Crypto Lender Celsius Hit With 2 Securities Actions in 1 Day

The Garden State is joining Texas in taking Celsius to task.

The BlockFi playbook is in full effect.

Shortly after Texas securities regulators issued crypto lender Celsius with an order to appear in court on Friday, New Jersey is piling on by filing a cease-and-desist order.

“If you sell securities in NJ, you need to comply with NJ’s securities laws. And that includes those operating in the cryptocurrency market,” tweeted New Jersey Acting Attorney General Andrew Bruck. “Our Bureau of Securities has ordered an NJ-based company — Celsius — to stop offering interest-bearing accounts.”

New Jersey and Texas were also among the states to slap crypto lender BlockFi with similar actions in July.

Earlier this week, BlockFi CEO Zac Prince said crypto lenders need federal guidance on the status of accounts that provide interest on crypto deposits. Prince took offense at the piecemeal efforts by state regulators.

“We’re not going to decide what box crypto lending belongs in based on what New Jersey does or what Texas does or what any one other state does,” Prince said at the SALT conference in New York on Monday.

A request for comment sent to Celsius on the New Jersey order was not returned by press time. The company has still not replied to our earlier inquiry on the Texas matter.

4. US Officials Add Insider Trading Claims to Binance Investigation

Binance already faced a probe from the IRS and Department of Justice.

Reported U.S. investigations into Binance, one of the world’s largest crypto exchanges, now includes an insider trading and market manipulation probe, Bloomberg reported Friday.

Bloomberg said the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) has begun recruiting possible witnesses. That could signal a more serious legal investigation than the collaborative inquiry that Binance officials have described in earlier reports.

Binance already faced a probe from the U.S. Department of Justice and the IRS. The investigation reportedly focused on tax and money laundering claims.

The CFTC has also reportedly been investigating the exchange for allowing customers in the U.S. to trade derivatives products without oversight from the CFTC.

A Binance spokesperson told that the exchange has “a zero-tolerance policy for insider trading.”

“There is a long-standing process in place that our security team follows to investigate and hold those accountable that have engaged in this type of behavior, immediate termination being minimal repercussion,” the spokesperson said in a statement.

A CFTC spokesperson declined to comment.

5. Crypto Holders File Lawsuit Against Apple Over Fake Wallet App Scam

The complaint alleges that a fake wallet app was used to cheat customers out of more than $5 million in crypto holdings.

Apple is being sued yet again for damages resulting from a fake scam app available in its App Store, this time involving cryptocurrency.

In a class action complaint filed on Thursday, the named plaintiff — Maryland resident Hadona Diep, described as a “full-time cyber-security IT professional” — accused Apple of knowingly “authorizing a malicious application” in its App Store that caused Diep to lose 474 XRP tokens, worth approximately $507 at the time of publication.

According to the complaint, the fraudulent app, a spoof of the legitimate Toast Wallet called Toast Plus, was used to steal Diep’s seed phrase and all of the tokens in the fake wallet. The complaint alleges that “hundreds or thousands” of users were victims of the Toast Plus scam app, and over $5 million in cryptocurrency was stolen.

The class action lawsuit against Apple is the latest in a series of litigations targeting Apple’s $64-billion App Store. Apple has defended its walled-garden approach by saying that it keeps users safe by preventing scams and viruses from being unknowingly downloaded — something that has been called into question by Diep’s lawsuit and others, including the developer of the FlickType app.

Critics of the App Store have also accused it of being an unfair monopoly, the debate at the center of the Apple vs. Epic Games lawsuit. Diep’s lawsuit also calls out Apple’s “near-monopolistic application market,” claiming that Apple must “take reasonable precautions to ensure that the goods it provides are reasonably safe and secure.”

Founded in July 2018, ZBG is a Hong Kong-based cryptocurrency exchange, a global platform of ZB.COM.

ZBG.com has quickly become one of the top 10 exchanges in the world with its innovative, efficient and global operations, and is known as a “New First-Tier” exchange.

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In the future, ZBG will continue to expand its global market and provide stable, safe and fast blockchain project listing, diversified crypto assets and blockchain derivatives investment services to more blockchain enthusiasts around the world.

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ZBG Team

September 18, 2021

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ZBG

Launched in 2018, ZBG is a Hong Kong-based crypto exchange, a subsidiary of ZB.COM. ZBG is focused on providing a trading platform for new and innovative tokens