WhaleFin Weekly —The New Bull Cycle in Crypto Market to Start in 2023?

WhaleFin

8 min readOct 20, 2022

Read about the most recent trends and updates in the crypto industry.

Crypto Scam Victims Against Coinbase

An arbitration demand was filed against Coinbase by its customers who have collectively lost a considerable amount of crypto to scammers.
The victims claim that Coinbase ignored their requests to fix vulnerabilities in the Coinbase Wallet app.
This directly led to some investors losing their entire life savings.

Source: The Washington Post

Blockchain.com and Crypto.com Restricting Russian-Tied Accounts

Blockchain.com will longer provide custodial and rewards services to Russian nationals.
Crypto.com has already blocked users affected by the EU regulations from accessing the app.

Source: The Block

Magic Eden: $1 Million Hackathon to Innovate on NFT Creator Monetization and Royalty Tools

Magic Eden, a leading cross-chain NFT platform, announced that it would be introducing a Creator Monetization Hackathon with up to $1M investment.
The Hackathon aims support the development of pro-NFT royalties and alternative monetization tools on Solana.

Source: PR Newswire

Crypto Hackers’ Record Year: Over $3 Billion Looted

At least $718 million has been stolen so far in October alone.
The gross tally for the year past is $3 billion.

Source: Bloomberg, Chainalysis Inc

South Korea’s Biggest Exchanges Will Fight Crypto Crime With Police

The five biggest crypto exchanges in South Korea have signed a “crypto crime-fighting” MOU deal with the nation’s police force, agreeing to work with officers fighting crypto money launderers and scam artists.
Upbit, Bithumb, Korbit, Coinone, and Gopax have agreed to facilitate police investigations into “crimes related to virtual assets” and to “prevent damage” to investors.

Source: Cryptonews

Brazil’s New Rules to Classify Cryptocurrency Assets

The Brazilian Securities and Exchange Commission (CVM) has issued a new guidance opinion document that touches on the issue of crypto-based securities.
The document defines cryptocurrencies as digitally represented assets, protected by cryptography tech, that can be transacted and stored through Distributed Ledger Technologies.

Source: News Bitcoin

Will the UK Trade Documents Stored Using Blockchain?

The U.K. government has passed a bill that could see it adopt blockchain technology as a way to store certain official documents.
The UK government intends to become “paperless” when dealing with official documents.
The Electronic Trade Documents Bill will make electronic documentation legally recognized in a move that should reduce carbon emissions.

Source: CoinDesk

Macau Looks to Apply Traditional Currency Regulations to Digital Currencies

The Executive Council of Macau has completed its review of a proposed law that lays out the regulatory framework for the legal standardization of all currencies in the region, including digital currencies, and submitted it for consideration to the Legislative Assembly.
The law, entitled “Legal regime for the creation and issuance of money,” seeks to make digital currencies legal tender and subject to regulation in the autonomous region.

Source: Kitco

Third-Biggest Bank in France to Offer Digital Asset Services

French banking giant Société Générale has been approved to offer digital asset services through its subsidiary Forge.
The ruling enables it to custody, sell, and trade digital assets.
This new approval follows similar regulatory rulings by the Autorité des Marchés Financiers for overseas crypto companies including Crypto.com, Binance, and Luno.

Source: The Block

Russian Stablecoin Usage Surges After Ukraine Invasion

A new report from blockchain analytics firm Chainalysis has shown a surge in stablecoin usage in Russia.
Following the Russian invasion of Ukraine, the country has been experiencing sanctions and inflation.
Russia’s removal from the cross-border system SWIFT is likely to see crypto being utilized for cross-border transactions.
According to the anonymous source, stablecoins are likely to be the preferred medium of exchange due to their price stability.

Source: Cointelegraph

Interoperability Potential

Umee, a blockchain enabling seamless cross-chain borrowing and lending of digital assets, announced the mainnet upgrade of its native borrowing and lending module to support all Cosmos IBC assets.
Umee is now the first Inter-Blockchain Communication-compatible lending-specific blockchain, interoperable with Ethereum and the entire Cosmos ecosystem.

Source: Business Wire

DeFi Lending Protocol Alchemix v2 Migration Completed

DeFi lending protocol Alchemix announced that their v2 migration was completed and v1 has officially been retired.
The protocol indicated that users with v1 positions will need to migrate using the built-in tool to ensure their position continues to earn yield.

Source: Token Insights

Budweiser turns scoreboards into NFTs for FIFA World Cup
OpenSea launches NFT marketplace on Avalanche
Yuga Labs’ NFT project Meebits settled in The Sandbox
Oscar winner Anthony Hopkins’ first NFT collection sells out in minutes on OpenSea
Liverpool FC launches NFT Kits in the Meta Avatars Store

The New Bull Cycle in Crypto Market to Start in 2023 — Bitwise CEO

Hunter Horsley, Co-Founder and CEO of Bitwise Asset Management, stated,

“Crypto is down about 60%, or thereabouts — it’s changing every day. So the story of this year is definitely a bear market. Nevertheless, we’ve seen increased interest from our client base. And I think the backdrop for many crypto investors is that there have historically been four-year cycles, and while there are opportunities to make money in many crypto market moments, bear markets are the moments when fortunes can be made. So there are some that are positioning themselves in the current bear market and are coming into the space now. The expectation, if the market continues its historical trend, would be that we begin a new cycle next year.“

Source: stl.news

CFTC Should Get More Power to Oversee Stablecoins — SEC Chairman

U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission Chairman Gary Gensler said Friday the Commodity Futures Trading Commission should be given more authority to police stablecoins.
Gensler argued that stablecoins are very similar to money-market markets and should be regulated accordingly.

Source: CoinDesk

Bitcoin Bear Market Will Last ‘2–3 Months Max’ — Interview With BTC Analyst Philip Swift

Philip Swift said that he thinks traditional markets have more room to go down going into early 2023.

“At worst, I see crypto having a tough time until then, so probably another 2–3 months max. But I think the majority of fear will soon switch toward governments and their currencies — rightly so. Therefore I do expect private assets like Bitcoin to outperform in 2023 and surprise many of the doomers who are saying Bitcoin has failed and is going to zero.”

Source: Cointelegraph

U.S. CPI (consumer price index, an instrument used to measure inflation — the higher the CPI, the higher the inflation) showed strength last month in service prices. The next rate hike decision from the Fed will be November.
The dollar index remained in strong movement, while the price of BTC dropped to the low $19K area. However, there were still no definitive moves in bigger timeframes.
Ethereum has become deflationary over the past week, for the first time following the Merge. There was a reduction of 0.13% in supply over the last week, equivalent to about 4,000 tokens.

Weekly High

BTC: $19,954
ETH: $18,193

Weekly Low

BTC: $1,344
ETH: $1,189

WhaleFin, powered by Amber Group, is an all-in-one digital asset platform designed to empower you to diversify, manage, and grow your wealth digitally in a secure manner. On WhaleFin, you can buy, sell, trade, and invest in crypto with ease.

Download the app here.

Amber Group is a leading digital asset platform operating globally with a presence in Asia, Europe, and the Americas. We provide a full range of digital asset services spanning investing, financing, trading, and spending, backed by some of the best investors across the world such as Sequoia Capital, Temasek, and Tiger Global Management.

For more on WhaleFin’s announcements and news, please follow us on social media.

For support and assistance, please contact us at service@whalefin.com

This material is strictly for information purposes only, and does not constitute or shall not be considered as, an offer, solicitation, or recommendation, to deal in any products. The information provided is not intended to provide a sufficient basis on which to make an investment decision. It is intended only to provide observations and views of certain personnel and has not been reviewed by any regulators elsewhere, which may be different from, or inconsistent with, the observations and views of Amber Group.

Amber Group assumes no obligation to update or otherwise revise this material, Amber Group does not represent or warrant its accuracy or completeness and is not responsible for losses or damages arising out of errors, omissions or changes or from the use of information presented in this material. Contents in any third-party sources (if any) in this material are completely beyond the control of Amber Group. As such, Amber Group shall not be held responsible for the accuracy, completeness and legality of the contents of such third-party contents. Any reference to third-party contents does not imply an endorsement, representation or warranty by Amber Group. No liability will be accepted for any loss or damage arising from or in reliance upon the contents of this material or these independent third-party contents provided here.

This material is not directed to or intended for distribution to or use by, any person or entity who is a citizen or resident of or located in any locality, state, country or other jurisdiction where such distribution, publication, availability or use would be contrary to law or regulation or which would subject Amber Group to any registration or licensing requirement within such jurisdiction.

This material does not purport to contain all of the information that an interested party may desire and, in fact, provides only a limited view. Any headings are for the convenience of reference only and shall not be deemed to modify or influence the interpretation of the information contained.