Celsius Network Saga, USDT under DDOS Attack, 3AC Insolvency Rumors, Elon Musk Sued for $258bn, Bitcoin below $20K, ETH at $900: This Week’s Crypto News Recap

Let's just say it's been a long ass week.

It really was an eventful week in the crypto space with each event having pivotal consequences on the market prices of major cryptocurrencies and digital assets. The market took major hits over the past seven days, and nothing looks very good at the time of this writing. This series of unfortunate news came from various fronts, which resulted in a drop of close to $400 billion in the total market capitalization in the past week alone.

From the halt of the Celsius network to the audacious lawsuit against Tesla CEO and Dogecoin activist—Elon Musk, we've rounded up the top news headlines of events that shook the space this week. 

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Celsius Network halted due to "extreme market conditions”

At the very start of the week, the Celsius protocol lost 50% of market value as the platform halted withdrawals due to ‘Extreme Market Conditions.’ Celsius Network – one of the industry’s largest lenders and a prominent player in DeFi and centralized finance – stopped withdrawals, transfers, and swaps. This eventually resulted in users being locked out and having no access to their funds on the platform. 

This caused great panic in the market for Celsius holders as rumors of a possible liquidation emerged, which were later debunked by the company. The CEO further assured that the team is working non-stop to get the network fully functional again.

3AC Insolvency Rumors?

Following the halt of the Celsius network, more panic arose as Three Arrows Capital – one of the industry’s largest hedge funds – was also apparently announced to be in distress. Top on-chain analysts further revealed that some of their multi-million dollar positions were close to total liquidation. This further raised more red flags for the crypto community. 

However, the co-founder of 3AC– Kyle Davis – disclosed that the company is exploring different options to curb its challenges, which might include selling off assets and getting rescued by another firm. 

Bitcoin below 20k; ETH loses 40%

Bitcoin is currently trading at slightly below $20,000 – a previous all-time high from 2017. This remains a key level as many analysts believe that a dip further, will trigger massive liquidations to the downside. The largest cryptocurrency eventually lost a whopping 30% of its value this week, and that’s not even the worst news yet.

Ethereum happens to be one of the top cryptocurrencies that lost the most over the past seven days – down 40% and trading below the critical level of $1,000 as at the time of writing. ETH’s downslide was largely influenced by forced liquidations following the news around Celsius and 3AC.

Evidently, it has been a chaotic week for the entire financial industry over the past week. Also, at press time, there are no strong signs of a reversal to the upside, so major questions are looming around if these price levels will hold the selling pressure. 

Elon Musk sued for $258 Billion… 

Elon Musk — as well as Tesla and SpaceX — are being sued for $258 billion following allegations they all played a vital role in facilitating a "Dogecoin pyramid scheme."

The richest man in the world has been dragged to a New York Court by a certain Keith Johnson, a self-described “American citizen who was defrauded by the dogecoin pyramid scheme”.

Dogecoin was created as a joke but soon gained notoriety once Elon Musk started tweeting about it, prompting others to join in the memestorm and subsequent purchase of the memecoin.

USDT Under DDOS Attack

In a week that just couldn’t stop giving, the most valuable stablecoin, USDT was the target of a distributed denial of service (DDOS) attack.

According to a tweet from Tether’s CTO, Antonion Ardiono, the attackers sent a ransomware demand on the morning of June 18. The large-scale DDOS was caused by the company’s refusal to comply with the demands. However, he reported that the attack was contained and things were back to normal for the stablecoin.

Another close shave, it seems. Well, one thing’s for sure.

Its never a dull week in web3!

Till next time,

Keep Building.

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