Fortnightly Crypto Insights 23/8/24
Sei Launch
After a highly successful testnet with over 7.5 million wallets created, Sei Labs has announced the mainnet launch of its Sei Blockchain along with the release of its native token SEI. The token saw a trading volume of over $1 billion in just one day, behind major players like BTC, ETH and USDT.
Crypto Liquidations
Over $1 billion USD worth of cryptocurrency has been liquidated as Bitcoin crashed on Thursday last week. A liquidation of this size has not been seen since November 2022’s FTX collapse, when the prominent centralised exchange declared bankruptcy. However, since the initial collapse, Bitcoin’s price has begun to see a very slow comeback, hovering around $26,000.
PayPal
Ledger has just announced that it will integrate PayPal to allow users to purchase Bitcoin, Ethereum, Litecoin and Bitcoin Cash. This follows the release of PayPal’s stablecoin PYUSD last week. For many, it signals traditional finance’s growing interest in and adoption of cryptocurrency.
China Deflation
For the first time in two years, China is experiencing a period of deflation. Many are concerned about the effect that this will have on investments such as Bitcoin, as deflation could discourage spending and investing activities.
Donald Trump Arkham Intelligence
A prominent blockchain intelligence firm Akhram Intelligence has announced that it is monitoring what it believes to be the cryptocurrency wallet belonging to former US president Donald Trump. The announcement has caused a spike in ETH, the coin that the wallet mostly held, mainly as cryptocurrency has been a prominent debate leading up to the 2024 presidential election.
friend.tech
Cryptocurrency social media platform friend.tech was released last week, seeing 10 thousand users at launch. The platform allows users to buy ‘shares’ of other users' profiles, granting access to exclusive content, group chats and more. The platform has attracted many influencers, including those not involved in cryptocurrency, such as Youtuber Faze Banks.