News Updates January 10, 2023
1. Internet giant Wix adds CoinGate integration to its crypto payments service. Crypto payment processors that provide payment service integrations with leading technology firms continue to be integral in the cryptocurrency space to rise in tandem with the ever-increasing prevalence of the usage of cryptocurrencies as a form of payment by merchants.
CoinGate, a leading European crypto payment gateway, announced on January 10 an integration with Wix.com (NASDAQ: WIX), which accepts crypto payments from their customers in Germany, Lithuania, Spain, and the Netherlands. As a result, German, Lithuanian, Dutch, and Spanish Wix shop owners now have access to the CoinGate e-commerce payment gateway.
Wix retailers that integrate Coingate as a payment processor may accept Bitcoin (including Lightning Network payments) and over 70 other cryptocurrencies from their clients.
All cryptocurrencies received by a business may be converted to and withdrawn in a single fiat currency, such as EUR, USD, or GBP, to mention a few.
Partnership to encourage more businesses to accept crypto.
CoinGate CEO Justas Paulius believes that this partnership will inspire more businesses to take advantage of cryptocurrency markets by allowing them to serve a larger number of customers who either only use cryptocurrencies or do not have access to traditional payment methods like banks and credit cards.
“Cryptocurrencies are becoming inseparable from the realities of people’s daily lives globally. Our goal is to give all people a way to participate in global economies, regardless of whether they own a bank account or use credit cards, while providing merchants with a convenient way to serve them. I believe our partnership with Wix brings us one step closer to our goal,”
2. Class Action Lawsuit Against Terra And Do Kwon Voluntarily Dismissed
A class action lawsuit filed against Terraform Labs, Terra's founder Do Kwon, and affiliates in the U.S. has been voluntarily dismissed.
Class action lawsuit Albright v. Terraform Labs, Pte. Ltd. et al. filed in the Southern District of New York Court has been voluntarily dismissed on Monday. The class action filed in August against Terraform Labs, Do Kwon, and affiliates accused the defendants of falsely promoting, manipulating, and offering TerraUSD (UST) stablecoin and Terra (LUNA).
Class Action Against Terraform Labs and Do Kwon Dismissed
Three Arrows Capital (3AC) co-founder Zhu Su in a tweet on January 10 revealed the voluntary dismissal of a class action lawsuit against Terraform Labs, Luna Foundation Guard, and its executives.
Lead plaintiff Matthew Albright has filed a notice with the U.S. District Court Southern District Court for the Southern District of New York. According to the notice, the case is voluntarily dismissed, without prejudice against the defendants.
The defendants include Terraform Labs, Jump Trading, Delphi Digital Consulting, Luna Foundation Guard (LFG), Do Kwon, Nicholas Platias, Jose Macedo, Kanav Kriya, and Remi Tetot.
The class action lawsuit accused the defendants of falsely promoting UST algorithmic stablecoin, Terra (LUNA), and other related Terra coins. Moreover, touting the stability of the coins when profits were being laundered out of Terraform Labs and into defendants’ personal accounts.
The move is likely due to recent revelations of market manipulation and trading of LUNA tokens by Sam Bankman-Fried’s FTX and Alameda Research. Zhu Su and Do Kwon earlier blamed Alameda Research and crypto lender Genesis for the UST depeg and shorting LUNA tokens after the depeg.
However, two class action lawsuits against Terraform Labs and Do Kwon filed by law firm Bragar Eagel & Squire, P.C. and securities and consumer rights litigation firm Scott+Scott are still active.
3. Bitcoin steady around $17,250 as altcoins dip, Coinbase jumps on job cuts.
QUICK TAKE
Bitcoin was trading around $17,300, up 0.3%.
Altcoins led losses while memecoin shiba inu jumped 5%.
Coinbase rose following its latest round of layoffs.
Bitcoin and ether held onto gains as altcoins traded lower, while traditional markets rose modestly. Coinbase popped following its latest layoff announcement.
Bitcoin was trading around $17,270 at 9:45 a.m. EST, up 0.1% over the past 24 hours, according to TradingView data.
Ether traded about $1,334, adding 0.6%, while altcoins like Ripple's XRP and Polygon's MATIC traded lower, falling by 1.4% and 2.3%, respectively. Solana's SOL and Polkadot's DOT both shed 2.3%.
Dog-themed memecoins had a mixed 24 hours. Dogecoin fell 1.2%, while shiba inu jumped 5%.
WOO Network's token jumped 20% following the release of its latest tokenonmics.
Crypto stocks
The S&P 500 was little changed while the Nasdaq was up 0.3%.
Coinbase jumped more than 3% after announcing job cuts affecting about 25% of its workforce.
Investment bank Needham remains positive on Coinbase, saying the move was necessary. The firm maintained a price target of $73 for the stock and a buy rating.
"We view the cost reductions as a positive for the stock and a necessary step given the uncertain volume picture in 2023," analysts wrote in a note, adding there is still potential for fallout from the FTX collapse and "remain cautious on volumes for the first half of 2023."
Silvergate, which announced layoffs of its own last week, gained about 3%.
Block and MicroStrategy were trading lower.
Shares in Grayscale's bitcoin trust (GBTC) were trading at a discount to the net asset value (NAV) of 38.5% on Monday.
4. Bitcoin price targets include new $14K dip as Fed's Powell avoids inflation
No fresh BTC price catalyst from the Fed as Chair Powell fails to mention inflation altogether.
Bitcoin traders faced disappointment at the Jan. 10 Wall Street open after the United States Federal Reserve declined to comment on future policy.
Powell keeps quiet on Fed policy
Data from Cointelegraph Markets Pro and TradingView followed BTC/USD as it stayed flat at around $17,250 on Bitstamp.
Hopes had focused on a fresh BTC price catalyst courtesy of the Fed in the form of a speech by Chair Jerome Powell.
Speaking at the International Symposium on Central Bank Independence at Sweden’s Central Bank headquarters in Stockholm, however, Powell avoided the topic of U.S. monetary policy altogether.
“I will address three main points. First, the Federal Reserve's monetary policy independence is an important and broadly supported institutional arrangement that has served the American public well,” he began.
“Second, the Fed must continuously earn that independence by using our tools to achieve our assigned goals of maximum employment and price stability, and by providing transparency to facilitate understanding and effective oversight by the public and their elected representatives in Congress. Third, we should ‘stick to our knitting’ and not wander off to pursue perceived social benefits that are not tightly linked to our statutory goals and authorities.”
5. Infected by fraud’ — Projects claim CoinMarketCap airdrops were gamed
A crypto project claims a promotional token airdrop campaign led by CoinMarketCap was riddled with “fraud” that left its token price crumbling.
Two crypto projects have cried foul play over promotional airdrops conducted by CoinMarketCap (CMC) on their behalf, which they allege was "gamed" for the benefit of a small group of exploiters.
These promotional airdrops — designed to be distributed to thousands of wallets to raise awareness of a crypto project — ended with the tokens making their way to just a handful of wallets, suggesting potential manipulation of the system.
SATT token drop
Blockchain advertising solution SaTT told Cointelegraph that a promotional airdrop it paid CMC to conduct in December 2022 ended with 84% of the airdropped tokens going to just 21 wallets.
The promotion was supposed to see 25,000 winning wallets receive 4,000 SATT each, worth $6.30 at the time according to CoinGecko data.
However, SaTT claimed that shortly after the airdrop distribution, 20,953 wallets “automatically transferred the tokens to 21 wallet addresses,” which sold off their token holdings days later, netting around $142,000 for those 21 wallet owners.
The sell-off plunged the price of SATT 70% between the end of the airdrop on Dec. 1, to when the wallets sold their tokens on Dec. 10.
TokenBot token drop
TokenBot co-founder Shaun Newsum told Cointelegraph of a similar experience when the company did a CMC-led airdrop of its TKB token on Dec. 9.
Newsum said CMC provided its 30,000 airdrop winners but he chose to “stagger” the airdrop “just in case something happens.”
TokenBot sent out its tokens to a batch of 4,000 winners to start, but around 3,300 ended up sending the funds to one wallet, said Newsum.
Newsum said around $20,000 was lost by TokenBot in the incident, with the project having to deploy more liquidity from its treasury.
“Obviously some person figured out how to game CMC,” he added. “If we were to have bulk sent, the whole airdrop would’ve been a complete disaster.”
Newsum said he has since received an apology from CMC who said it was investigating the airdrop and would return with an updated winners list for the project.
In its investigation, SaTT claims to have found another 18 tokens or nonfungible token (NFT) airdrops conducted by CMC since July 2022 that were also allegedly “infected by fraud” to the tune of $6.6 million.
This included airdrops for projects including TopGoal, OwlDAO and AgeOfGods.
SaTT theorized two possibilities of how the “fraud” occurred:
“Either a group of hackers injected tons of fake accounts [into the airdrop on CMC’s website] [...] or it was actually an inside job.”
CoinMarketCap responds
Speaking to Cointelegraph, a CMC spokesperson addressed some of these claims, arguing that at least four of the projects identified by SaTT have yet to distribute rewards, meaning it would be “impossible” for them to have faced “malicious” activity.
The spokesperson also noted that while three projects, including SaTT, AgeOfGods and TokenBot have spoken to the CMC team about their concerns, it has not received any communications from other projects about the alleged issues.
