Newly discovered documents could pose a major roadblock for the United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) in its case against Ripple if they prove a former commission official had a conflict of interest. The SEC has been embroiled in a legal battle against blockchain company Ripple since 2020, in which the crypto company and senior executives Brad Garlinghouse and Christian Larsen were charged with selling Ripple (XRP) tokens as unregistered securities. In a Wednesday announcement, corruption watchdog Empower Oversight claimed that documents obtained under a Freedom Of Information request suggested former SEC director of corporate finance William Hinman had …

The knock-on effect of the collapse of Terra (LUNA) and its TerraUSD (UST) stablecoin spread wide across the cryptocurrency market on May 11 as projects with any kind of association with the decentralized finance (DeFi) ecosystem have seen their prices hammered. The forced selling of the Bitcoin (BTC) holdings backing a portion of UST also influenced BTC’s current drop to $29,000. Analysts fear that DeFi platforms that have liquidity pools primarily comprised of UST and LUNA will collapse. Terra-based protocols suffer Projects with the direst of outlooks are those that are hosted on the Terra protocol including Anchor Protocol, Astroport …

ApeCoin (APE), the new cryptocurrency that was recently launched by Yuga Labs, aims to be the bedrock of the Otherside metaverse and recently, the token has experienced massive volatility leading into and after its digital land sale. APE’s price dropped from $26 at the peak on Apr. 28 to $14 on May. 2 — more than a 45% drop within a few days of the mint. The price has now dropped to the $6 range. Given the current volatility, investors will be wondering if ApeCoin price will ever recover to its previous trading range. Let’s first take a look at …

Cryptocurrency investors never thought they’d have to ask whether TerraUSD (UST) or LUNA would reach $1 first. On Wednesday, that question became the talk of the cryptosphere as the Terra ecosystem imploded. As the algorithmic stablecoin UST lost its dollar peg, crashing to a low of around $0.30, Terraform Labs co-founder Do Kwon took to Twitter to share his rescue plan. At the same time, the value of sister token LUNA, once a top-10 crypto project by market capitalization, plunged over 98% to $0.84, according to CoinMarketCap. For reference: LUNA was trading north of $120 in early April. Amid the …

The crisis with Terra’s stablecoin TerraUSD (UST) and the freefall in Terra’s LUNA token has dented crypto sentiment further. Although Terraform Labs CEO Do Kwon announced a relief plan, the community does not seem too hopeful about the revival. Another hindrance to a quick improvement in sentiment is that the United States Consumer Price Index soared 8.3% from a year ago, outpacing estimates by 0.2%. Although the numbers are a tad bit lower than March’s 8.5% print, the slow deceleration suggests no respite from more tightening by the U.S. Federal Reserve. Although the screen looks scary during capitulation, it also …

Bitcoin (BTC) bounced back from ten-month lows on May 11 as the start of Wall Street trading gave bulls some relief. One day, $860 million more crypto liquidations Data from Cointelegraph Markets Pro and TradingView showed BTC/USD erasing the impact of above-expectation United States inflation data, hitting $32,000 on Bitstamp. April's Consumer Price Index (CPI) print has sent the pair into a fresh tailspin, with $30,000 giving way to levels not seen since July 2021. As turmoil over Terra, its LUNA and TerraUSD (UST) tokens and co-founder Do Kwon continued, the mood remained firmly wary. The Crypto Fear & Greed …

Even though the cryptocurrency market seems to be going through a bit of a lull at the moment, there’s no denying the fact that the industry has grown from strength to strength over the last few years, especially from an adoption perspective. To this point, a recent study revealed that the number of adults in the United States using digital assets for everyday purchases will increase by 70% by the end of the year when compared to 2021, with the metric rising from 1.08 million to 3.6 million users. The study’s chief author suggests that as the crypto market’s volatility …

Bitcoin (BTC) dropped by $1,500 in minutes on May 11 as the latest United States inflation data delivered mixed sentiment on the economic outlook. Bitcoin puts in fresh 10-month lows Data from Cointelegraph Markets Pro and TradingView tracked BTC/USD diving from $31,500 to abruptly pierce the $30,000 support as the Consumer Price Index (CPI) figures went live. At 8.3%, CPI outpaced estimates by 0.2% but still fell 0.2% compared to last month's readout. Reactions naturally began to focus on the idea that peak inflation may have passed. "This is higher than the expectation, but it shows the first decrease in …

The United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) is seeking to hire more people to focus on digital assets, raising the number of personnel charged with safeguarding investors in cryptocurrency markets almost twofold. The SEC's Cyber Unit, which comprises the Crypto Assets and Cyber team, is expected to hire 20 new people to increase the overall force to 50 dedicated positions, as reported by Cointelegraph on May 3. This development comes as the regulatory body attempts to keep up with the rise in the popularity of virtual assets. The SEC's decision to expand its cryptocurrency unit has been praised by …

Avalanche (AVAX) is paying the price for being one of the collateral assets that maintain Terra's native stablecoin TerraUSD's (UST) peg with the U.S. dollar. Major AVAX dump ahead? AVAX's price dropped about 30% to reach $32.50 on May 11, its lowest level since September 2021. Its massive intraday decline coincided with UST dropping to as low as $0.23, which effectively dented its stablecoin status among traders and investors alike. The depeg incident happened despite Luna Foundation Guard, a Singapore-based nonprofit backed by TerraLabs, emptying its crypto reserves to prop up the UST peg. The firm currently holds 1.97 million …

Do Kwon, CEO of Terraform Labs, has not accepted defeat. After an 18-hour wait in which Terra's LUNA and TerraUSD (UST) endured a face-ripping freefall, Kwon has announced what he hopes will be a rescue plan for the Terra community. LUNA is down 90% from its all-time highs, while the “stablecoin” UST is 75% below the dollar parity. In an attempt to save Terra, Kwon has planned “several remedial measures” to rescue the billions wiped off the total Terraform Labs market cap. 2/ I understand the last 72 hours have been extremely tough on all of you - know that …

Panic appeared to set in on crypto markets overnight on May 11 as Blockchain protocol Terra failed to steady its bleeding crypto assets. Data from Cointelegraph Markets Pro and TradingView showed both the firm’s in-house token, Terra (LUNA) and stablecoin, TerraUSD (UST) seeing fresh heavy losses on the day. A dubious new “all-time high” for Bitcoin After a mass sell-off, which some argued was “coordinated” to destroy the Terra ecosystem, UST lost its peg to the United States dollar. Attempts to shore up the peg when both LUNA and Bitcoin (BTC) reserves failed, and as uncertainty gripped the market, both …