Tether launch GBP stablecoin, Solana's liquidation scare, and Nazis at BAYC: This Week’s Crypto News Recap 🚀
Shhhh. Its okay now. The markets are green again. 🫂
Following Celsius and Three Arrow Capital’s liquidation saga, another liquidation fear might be set to cause a further downslide in market prices of major cryptocurrencies. With almost $1bn worth of liquidations at stake, the market price of Solana is set to drop drastically. This week’s crypto new roundup brings you insights on what’s happening with Solana, the new GBP stablecoin launch by Tether, Yuga Labs’ lawsuit against Ryder Ripps over “fake Bored Apes” and other events that rocked the crypto space this week.
Solana lead $1 billion liquidation scare
Emerging reports show the key liquidation levels on top layer 1 crypto protocols, with a total of $778m worth of positions across Bitcoin, Solana & Ethereum. These reports reveal that $477m worth of $BTC—a position held by Celsius— is set to be liquidated at $13,604 and $141m worth of ETH has a liquidation price of $895. However, a more intriguing situation revolves around the $160m worth of Solana held on Solend Protocol.
A crypto whale is said to have deposited $160m worth of Solana on Solend protocol as collateral to borrow $108m. However, as this position creeps towards liquidation, many fear that the whale might lose its funds if the market price of Solana tanks lower. Solend Protocol has reached out to the user in a bid to negotiate a solution as they claim it was risky to allow liquidation of this size to happen on-chain.
Upon not getting a response from the user, Solend Protocol issued a proposal that will "grant emergency power to temporarily take over the whale's account so the liquidation can be executed OTC."
The proposal was challenged with vast public backlash, with many claiming that the intervention directly goes against the essence of decentralization.
@el33th4xor (founder of $AVAX), @CZ_binance (CEO of Binance) and @Coachkcrypto challenged the proposal, with @cobie labeling the $Sol situation a "comedy" via a tweet.
Here's where it gets interesting, despite the backlash from the public, the proposal got 1.15million votes in support and 30,301 against it. 90% of the votes were linked to one user which caused Solend Protocol to push forward another proposal to invalidate the first vote and extend governance voting time by 1 day.
Although the price of Solana still holds above $40, the $22.30 mark remains significant for the $160m Solend Protocol position.
Tether Launch GBP stablecoin pegged to the British Pound
The world’s largest stablecoin operator, Tether is now making an entrance to the British market with a new stablecoin GBP₮, pegged to the British Sterling Pound. Tether announced the launch of the fifth stablecoin pegged to a fiat currency. So far, apart from the USD-pegged USDT, Tether has the Euro-pegged EUR₮, the Mexican Peso-pegged stablecoin MXN₮, and the offshore Chinese Yuan-pegged CNH₮.
The launch of GBP₮ comes at a time when the U.K government is seeking to recognize stablecoins as a valid form of payment. Tether says that this initiative will help the U.K. become a key destination for the next wave of crypto innovation. Concerning the development Paolo Ardoino, CTO of Tether said: "We believe that the United Kingdom is the next frontier for blockchain innovation and the wider implementation of cryptocurrency for financial markets. We hope to help lead this innovation by providing cryptocurrency users worldwide with access to a GBP-denominated stablecoin issued by the largest stablecoin issuer."
Since GBP₮ will be pegged to the British Sterling Pound in 1:1, the stablecoin will serve under the parent firm tether.to. With GBP₮ in place, British crypto investors will have a less costly and faster option for asset transfers.
Yuga Labs Lawsuit Accuses Ryder Ripps of 'Scamming Consumers' With Fake Bored Apes
Yuga Labs, the company behind Bored Ape Yacht Club, has reportedly filed a lawsuit against Ryder Ripps, accusing him of "scamming" buyers with falsely equivalent NFTs in a "deliberate effort to harm Yuga Labs at the expense of consumers."
Ripps who is the creator of RR/BAYC—an Ethereum based NFT collection that features attributes to identical BAYC images which Ripps do not own. RR/BAYC NFTs kicked off minting on May 13 on Foundation, and after Yuga sent Ripps an initial DMCA takedown claim, it quickly rescinded the claim when Ripps fought it. OpenSea, the largest NFT marketplace, has since taken down Ripps' collection due to "a claim of intellectual property infringement," but not before it swooped nearly $3.5 million in total volume traded.
Following the lawsuit, Ripps responded via a tweet and Yuga Labs cited that the group "will continue to be transparent with our community as we fight these slanderous claims" and that it "will continue exploring and pursuing all legal options at our disposal."
The company, currently valued at $4 billion, is demanding a jury trial and we await to see how the situation unfolds.
BAYC creators shut down rumors claiming they were Secret Nazis
Co-founder of Yuga Labs, Gordon Goner has clamped down on the rumors linking the group with being super-secret Nazis. Gordon cited that the group includes members from the Jewish, Turkish, Pakistani, and Cuban communities and have no ties with Nazis.
However, the ADL—Anti-Defamation League, a Jewish community against libel, seemed unmoved by Goner's complaints on the rumor.
Quoting a tweet from @The_True_DanK, Gordon Goner further slams these allegations saying they were insanely far-fetched.
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