Michael Saylor: “I’m Already Planning the $100K Bitcoin Party for New Year’s Eve at My House”

TL;DR

Heading South

The past 24 hours have not been kind to the cryptocurrency market, with numerous leading assets charting substantial losses. Bitcoin (BTC) dipped below $88,000, Ethereum (ETH) tumbled to approximately $3,000, while Solana (SOL) is down by 4%.

The meme coin sector has had it even worse. Dogecoin (DOGE) plummeted by 8%, whereas its biggest rival – Shiba Inu (SHIB) – dropped by 9%.

Some of the assets whose prices skyrocketed in the last few days, such asPepe (PEPE)andPeanut the Squirrel (PNUT), are now among the poorest performers, registering double-digit losses. Other tokens joining that club include Popcat (POPCAT), Neiro (NEIRO), dogwifhat (WIF), and more.

However, it’s not all doom and gloom since some meme coins are well in the green zone. The examples include CAT (+10%), BRETT (+13%), SPX (+17%), DEGEN (+26%), and others.

Meanwhile, the total market capitalization of the meme coin niche remains well above $100 billion. Earlier this week, the figure surpassed the record $120 billion.Meme Coin’s Volatile Nature

Meme coins have emerged as a major trend in the cryptocurrency world, frequently making the headlines due to their rapid price surges and widespread popularity driven by Internet culture.

Many tokens, including DOGE, SHIB, BONK, and PEPE, have recorded triple and even quadruple increases in the last year, thus triggering significant profits (at least on paper) for those jumping on the bandwagon in the early days.

However, memes can just as easily experience a major correction, which could lead to devastating losses for inexperienced or overleveraged traders. After all, many of these assets lack fundamental value in terms of utility or intrinsic worth, and their prices are largely influenced by market speculation.

That said, people are advised to enter the ecosystem after conducting proper due diligence and invest only as much as they are ready to part with.

Major South Korea’s cryptocurrency exchange Upbit is reportedly suspected of massive breaches in Know Your Customer (KYC) procedures amid its local license renewal.

South Korea’s Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU) of the Financial Services Commission (FSC) has identified at least 500,000 to 600,000 potential KYC violations on the Upbit exchange, the local news agency Maeil Business Newspaper (MK) reported on Nov. 14.

The authority reportedly spotted alleged customer verification breaches while reviewing Upbit’s business license renewal, potentially affecting the exchange’s operations.

Upbit allegedly accepted blurred IDs for KYC

In South Korea, cryptocurrency exchanges or virtual asset service providers (VASPs) are obligated to establish strict KYC procedures.

In January 2018, the South Korean government sought to regulate crypto trading by allowing such trading only from real-name bank accounts. After beefing up the regulations, the FSC introduced a mandatory registration process for all crypto exchanges, ensuring they comply with KYC and Anti-Money Laundering (AML) protocols.

According to the MK report, the FIU identified many cases where Upbit reportedly did not follow KYC procedures.

For example, Upbit allegedly allowed users to open accounts using IDs with blurred personal data such as names and registration numbers, not allowing regulators to properly identify them.

Due to the alleged customer verification violations, Upbit reportedly faces fines of 100 million Korean won ($71,500) per case in addition to possible issues with Upbit’s business license renewal.

FSC previously initiated a monopoly probe against Upbit

Founded in 2017, Upbit is one of the largest crypto exchanges in South Korea and globally, trading $2.2 billion daily, according to CoinGecko.

The recent disclosure of Upbit’s alleged KYC issues comes a month after the FCS reportedly announced plans to investigate the exchange for potential anti-monopoly breaches in October.

Upbit’s monopoly investigation was related to its close relationship with K-Bank, which local authorities have long scrutinized due to its high exposure to crypto exchanges. In November 2023, local reports indicated that as much as 70% of K-Bank’s deposits were linked to crypto.

In mid-October, according to Bloomberg, K-Bank withdrew its $732 million initial public offering (IPO) in Seoul amid concerns over high valuation and dependency on a cryptocurrency operator for its funding. The IPO would’ve been South Korea’s largest public listing since 2022.

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Data shows Dogecoin and other meme coins are receiving a significant amount of attention on social media, a sign that may not be ideal for Bitcoin.

Top 6 Memecoins Have Seen Their Social Dominance Rocket Up Recently

In a new post on X, the analytics firm Santiment has discussed about the trend in the Social Dominance for a few different subsections of the cryptocurrency sector.

The “Social Dominance” here refers to an indicator that basically tells us about the mindshare that a particular asset or a group of coins has on the major social media platforms right now.

More formally, the metric’s value is calculated as a percentage of the discussions related to the top 100 cryptocurrencies by market cap that the given asset is making up for.

To determine this, the indicator collects posts/threads/messages available on five platforms: X, Reddit, Telegram, 4Chan, and BitcoinTalk. It then filters them for the keyword in question.

Note that for measuring the “discussion,” the metric simply counts up these posts containing at least one mention of the asset, rather than counting up the mentions themselves. The advantage of this methodology is that outlier posts containing hundreds of mentions don’t skew the data.

Now, here is the chart shared by the analytics firm that shows how the Social Dominance related to three subsections of the market has changed over the last few months:

The three segments in question are the layer 1 top six, the layer 2 top six, and the memecoin top 6. “Layer 1” networks refer to the primary blockchains that handle their own security, like Bitcoin and Ethereum. Networks like Polygon that are built on top of these chains are known as “layer 2.” Naturally, the meme coins refer to the popular meme-based tokens, like Dogecoin and Shiba Inu.

From the graph, it’s apparent that the Social Dominance of the layer 1 top 6 had rocketed up a couple of days back as a result of Bitcoin setting multiple new all-time highs (ATHs).

BTC has continued to explore new highs since then, but it appears that the focus of social media users has shifted elsewhere, with the Social Dominance of the layer 1 giants witnessing a cooldown.

The indicator has stayed relatively low for the layer 2 coins throughout this, implying the traders haven’t been caring much about them recently. The assets that have hogged all the attention have been the memecoins, who have just seen their discussion hit a new record.

The reason behind this high interest in these tokens is the impressive rally that Dogecoin has seen over the past week, leaving the rest of the sector in the dust after amassing profits of more than 104%. If the past is anything to go by, though, this outperformance may not be such a good thing.

“Historically high speculative asset social dominance typically indicates greed and emotional trading,” notes Santiment. Assets in the cryptocurrency sector tend to move opposite to the crowd’s beliefs, so greed is something that has generally led to tops for the market.

As such, it’s possible that a shift in focus away from Dogecoin may have to happen, if Bitcoin and others have to continue their bull run.

Dogecoin Price

At the time of writing, Dogecoin is trading around $0.398, up over 2% in the last 24 hours.

Solana price has seen a remarkable 40% surge in recent weeks, climbing to $210. Despite this bullish uptrend, SOL is encountering challenges at the $221 resistance level, which could signal a potential reversal.

Investor activity on the Solana network suggests the momentum might face hurdles in sustaining further gains.

Solana Investors Need Motivation

Transaction activity on the Solana network has increased significantly during the recent price rally. The network recently hit a yearly high in transaction count, highlighting growing interest among participants. However, this increase falls short of expectations, given the current hype surrounding Solana ETFs and broader market bullishness.

This moderate network activity raises concerns about the sustainability of the rally. If Solana fails to attract more significant user engagement, its price momentum might falter, especially as broader market cues begin to stabilize.

Solana’s macro momentum remains strong, supported by technical indicators. The Average Directional Index (ADX) is at 32, well above the 25.0 threshold, confirming a strong uptrend. This suggests that Solana could continue its upward trajectory if investors remain active.

However, investor participation will be crucial in sustaining this momentum. Should engagement wane, the current uptrend could lose its strength, potentially triggering a correction in SOL’s price.

SOL Price Prediction: Barriers Halt Growth

Solana is currently trading at $210, holding steady above its support level of $201. Despite the recent rally, the “Ethereum killer” is struggling to break past the $221 resistance level, which remains a significant barrier to reaching $245.

The mixed sentiment indicates that SOL may consolidate between $201 and $221 until a clearer directional trend emerges. This range-bound movement could dominate the short-term outlook unless broader market conditions shift dramatically.

However, if investors opt for profit-taking, Solana could see a decline below the $201 support level. Such a drawdown would invalidate the current bullish-neutral outlook, potentially sending SOL to $186, marking a significant setback for the altcoin’s rally.

Spot bitcoin exchange-traded funds in the U.S. saw $400.67 million exit the products on Thursday, with Ark’s and Bitwise’s ETFs recording their largest single-day withdrawals. These outflows ended a six-day streak of positive flows for the ETFs.

Fidelity’s FBTC led the outflows on Thursday with $179.2 million leaving the fund, marking its largest daily net outflow since May 1, according to SoSoValue data.

Ark and 21Shares’ ARKB recorded $161.7 million in net outflows, while Bitwise’s BITB logged outflows of $113.9 million, both representing their largest daily withdrawals since inception.

BlackRock’s IBIT, the largest spot bitcoin ETF by net assets, was one of the only two ETFs to experience positive flows on the day. It recorded $126.5 million in net inflows, while VanEck’s HODL logged inflows of $2.5 million. The five other funds saw zero flows.

The total trading volume for these 12 ETFs shrank to $4.8 billion on Thursday, down from $8 billion on Wednesday and $5.7 billion on Tuesday.

Ether ETFs saw modest outflows

Meanwhile, U.S. spot Ethereum ETFs recorded $3.2 million in net outflows on Thursday, following $146.9 million in daily inflows the day before.

Grayscale’s ETHE saw $21.9 million in outflows, and VanEck’s ETHV also logged outflows of $1.1 million. BlackRock’s ETHA drew in $18.9 million, while Invesco’s QETH posted $929,010 in inflows. The five other spot ether ETFs had no flows.

The nine spot ether ETFs’ trading volume came down to $439.2 million on Thursday, compared to $722.5 million the day before.

“Both Bitcoin and Ethereum ETFs experienced outflows yesterday. This retraction of institutional funds from assets that recently surged but are now losing momentum was anticipated,” said Valentin Fournier, an analyst of BRN, adding: “The inflation data’s bearish undertone reinforced this trend; however, trading volumes remain high, suggesting potential recovery next week.”

Bitcoin dipped 2.3% over the past 24 hours to trade at $87,948 at the time of writing, according to The Block’s price page. Ether fell 4.5% to change hands at $3,056.

Disclaimer: The Block is an independent media outlet that delivers news, research, and data. As of November 2023, Foresight Ventures is a majority investor of The Block. Foresight Ventures invests in other companies in the crypto space. Crypto exchange Bitget is an anchor LP for Foresight Ventures. The Block continues to operate independently to deliver objective, impactful, and timely information about the crypto industry. Here are our current financial disclosures.

© 2024 The Block. All Rights Reserved. This article is provided for informational purposes only. It is not offered or intended to be used as legal, tax, investment, financial, or other advice.

Opinion by Hong Yea, Co-Founder and CEO of GRVT.

The position taken by some crypto industry experts on regulation and compliance in the decentralized finance (DeFi) space can be striking at times. Whether at conferences and on panels or attending more casual side events, I’ve heard peers and competitors argue that DeFi is already self-regulated and has overcome the need for regulation. Their argument is based on the valid point that DeFi logic is embedded in the blockchain.

The logic, however, ends right there.

There’s no room for human error

The most critical piece of information being overlooked is that humans set the logic, write the code and assemble the smart contracts. Most of us are willing to admit that we are prone to behavioral biases, whether conscious or not. Others are less willing to acknowledge that they carry some form of malicious or mischievous intent. Whether people confess or not is irrelevant. The proof is in the countless harmful actions DeFi has already witnessed.

The human-centric broken logic, the cat-and-mouse nature of security vulnerability and many traders’ naivety are why we need compliance in DeFi. A lawless Wild West of decentralized finance doesn’t serve people’s interests.

Trust is key to unlocking institutional investment

DeFi’s crucial missing element is trust. Even those building trustless DeFi products would probably agree that the system should ultimately be abandoned without trust. There’s some trust right now, but not as much as possible. Stringent, effective compliance measures are the missing link.

The loop is clear: DeFi builders need investment, investors and users need trust and institutions need compliance (this is also the case with traditional finance, or TradFi). Institutional inflows hinge on compliant behavior and playing the book for the builders to get their funds and the investors and users to get their trust. Protocols and platforms that don’t want to play along may be putting their integrity under scrutiny, but that’s a dilemma for another day.

A commitment to decentralization is hard to argue against. Still, the vision for the future certainly seems to be at odds with those who want to see DeFi and TradFi (or CeFi) exist as opposites. DeFi appears to be a much-needed and positive technological development that addresses most of TradFi’s core problems (expensive, slow, centralized, exclusive, corrupt).

DeFi’s solution-centric design could lead us toward a perfect system, but the more room for human error, the less likely that already unlikely outcome. That’s why decentralization, no matter how pioneering, doesn’t compensate for regulation — let’s not be delusional about it.

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The transition toward compliance is a good thing

Regulation is the culmination of decades of careful adjustments, millions of hours of education and professional experience, and the scrutiny and nitpicking of countless experts. Regulation prevents incorrect and potentially harmful logic from being mistakenly (or maliciously) implemented into the system. That level of precision is necessary when trillions of dollars are at stake, and the industry’s future hangs in the balance.

Lawmakers in several countries have banned cryptocurrency outright because of how unregulated it is, and various other nations are considering following suit. Of course, there’s the other side of the coin, too — where other countries, like the United States, appear to be working hard and fast to legitimize cryptocurrency. Increasing the industry’s legitimacy is the most straightforward way to prevent bans in even more countries and regions.

On top of the investments made by those leveraging their money in the markets to grow their wealth, we now have millions of professionals working in this space who depend on its success for their livelihoods. We owe it to each other to push for a more credible sector. That’s why, despite the mysterious, rebellious and counter-cultural origins of Bitcoin, it’s time to realign with the times to make DeFi the truly all-accessible powerhouse that it can be.

The next step

Despite these words of encouragement, we must be acutely aware of the challenges along the way, not just the sentimental obstacles from those who won’t agree but also the natural friction that comes with enforcing progressive changes.

Before we reach a properly regulated DeFi world, we must start by ensuring that any logic embedded and integrated into this space is at least on par with regulations. Perhaps then, like most crypto founders who believe their tech is superior to TradFi, DeFi can compete with the regulatory system and code a better path forward.

Hong Yea is co-founder and CEO of GRVT. After a decade as a trader at Credit Suisse and Goldman Sachs, he co-founded GRVT in May 2022. GRVT aims to transform financial markets by integrating blockchain technology and self-custody solutions, focusing on blockchain settlement and trustless risk management. Hong’s international upbringing and business studies at Yonsei University shape his strategic vision for GRVT’s mission.

This article is for general information purposes and is not intended to be and should not be taken as legal or investment advice. The views, thoughts, and opinions expressed here are the author’s alone and do not necessarily reflect or represent the views and opinions of Cointelegraph.