BTC reaches $70,000, $4M SHIB lost, LUNC undervalued

[ad_1]

Crypto news: We bring you an overview of what happened in crypto this week. Wrapped Bitcoin surges to $70,000 on Richard Heart’s Ethereum fork, PulseChain, as Bitcoin becomes a viable 401(k) alternative.

Across the Pacific, Hong Kong police are exploring the metaverse’s potential in fighting crypto crime, and Asia-based exchange Hotbit is receiving 500 billion Shiba Inu (SHIB) despite its impending shutdown.

On Thursday, Binance closed the week by announcing the delisting of a perpetual futures contract linked to LUNC of Korean origin.

Amid a complex U.S. economic landscape, burdened by this week’s unlimited debt cap announcement and lingering inflation, slow investment growth has prompted 401(k) advisors to consider Bitcoin.

As Hong Kong kicks off its new crypto regulations, police are joining the party to enforce Anti-Money Laundering (AML) compliance using the Metaverse.

International exchanges like Binance are also evaluating the feasibility of operating in a bear market under restrictive regulations.

Bitcoin (BTC) Reaches Bull Market Highs on Ethereum Fork

On Monday, news surfaced of a recent surge in Bitcoin (BTC) prices on PulseChain, an Ethereum fork founded by Richard Heart.

The price of Wrapped Bitcoin rose to $70,000 in 20 minutes, accompanied by an unusual increase in trading volume on a normally cashless chain.

Snapshot on DEX Screener when wBTC rose to $70,000 Source: Trading View

The price fell back below $27,000 after 10 minutes. One commentator pointed out that it only took a $40,000 injection to push the price of wrapped BTC up.

Bitcoin price rose the same day to over $28,250, but ended May as its worst month since November 2022.

Investment advisors are starting to favor Bitcoin

Despite a tough May, Bitcoin could be boosted by new institutional interest, BeInCrypto reported on Sunday.

Scams, economic threats, and slow investment growth have seen 401(k) advisors start recommending Bitcoin as the crypto choice to clients for their pensions. Advisors say Bitcoin is a viable asset while warning against impulsive investing based on social media advice.

Investor Kevin O’Leary argued earlier this year that larger institutional flows could propel Bitcoin’s growth past $35,000.

Crypto News Socially Speaking Source: LunarCrush.comMysterious Whale Reduces Shiba Inu (SHIB) Losses

On Saturday, a whale curiously transferred 500 billion SHIB to an exchange on the verge of closing. The whale, which earned $70 million from SHIB in October 2021, appeared to cut its losses by moving assets from cold storage to a crypto exchange.

SHIB holdings have lost 90% of their value since the 2021 peak.

Historical chart SHIB/USD | Source: CoinGecko

Hotbit had previously advised customers to withdraw funds by June 21 due to cash flow and operational difficulties.

Binance waited a year to delist LUNC

With Do Kwon finally in jail, Binance announced yesterday that it will remove a derivative of LUNC on June 8.

On Thursday, the exchange adjusted margin levels for leveraged LUNC perpetual positions amid mounting problems for Kwon. The LUNC creator currently languishes in a Montenegrin prison awaiting trial on passport fraud charges as US and Korean prosecutors prepare extradition arguments.

Binance did not provide a reason for the delisting.

LUNC/BUSD perpetual chart | Source: Binance Futures

The exchange will automatically close and settle all positions in the contract on June 8.

Hong Kong police step up compliance

With the first round of crypto regulations effectively in place, Hong Kong police this week announced the new CyberDefender metaverse project to combat Web3 crime.

Cybersecurity chief Ip Cheuk-yu said advanced criminals cost the public $570 million due to digital asset crimes in the first quarter when the initiative launched.

On the same day, the Hong Kong Securities Regulatory Commission launched revised money laundering rules to curb the flow of illicit crypto funds. Institutions must collect sender and receiver information for digital asset transactions of 8,000 RMB or more.

Cryptocurrency News

Optimism (OP) led the bearish charge this week, falling 13.6% to break below a horizontal resistance zone at $1.85-$1.34 on Wednesday. The PEPE flag meme coin bounced off the support level of a parallel descending channel on May 31, after falling 12.96% since May 13.

Weekly performance of the best cryptocurrencies | Source: BeInCrypto

Flare (FLR) has drawn a descending resistance line and is in danger of falling below $0.024, BeInCrypto’s Valdrin Tahiri noted. The token has fallen 9.6% this week.

Toncoin (TON) fell 6.1% to trade around the $1.80 horizontal support, while Conflux (CFX) fell 6.04% to around $0.28.

On the upside, Injective (INJ) is up 27.88% to $8.04 at press time. Quant (QNT) was up around 21% last week to $117.60, while XDC Network (XDC) was up 17.13%.

Aptos (APT) gained 13.82% to hit $9.00, while The Graph (GRT) rounded out the top five, rising more than 13.5% to $0.13.

This Week in NFT Sales

OXBT tokens, following an experimental Bitcoin BRC-20 token standard, topped sales this week with $9.8 million. Twitter users paid tribute to the new token standard with orange profile pictures.

Ethereum’s Bored Ape Yacht Club, Azuki, and Mutant Ape collections saw weekly sales of $9.7 million, $9.1 million, and $7.4 million.

As a result, Ethereum accounted for $105 million of the top 5 blockchains’ $165 million in weekly non-fungible token (NFT) volumes.

Ethereum Leads Weekly Sales Volumes | Source: CryptoSlam

For the latest Bitcoin (BTC) analysis from BeInCryptos, click here.

Disclaimer

All information contained on our website is published in good faith and for general information purposes only. Any action the reader takes on the information found on our website is strictly at their own risk.

[ad_2]