Japaul Gold slumps by 30%, after rallying to 52-week high of N1.67 on Monday
Multiverse forecasts N39.5 million profit in Q1 2021
GCR affirms Dangote Cement issuer ratings of AA+(NG) and A1+(NG)
CEO, CFO purchase additional 1.28 million units of United Capital Plc shares
Governor Sanwo-Olu says 24,000 students yet to resume in public schools
How Access Bank got Japaul to pay up N37 billion loan that had gone bad
Covid-19: FG launches Rapid Response Register (RRR) for urban poor affected by pandemic
Naira strengthens at NAFEX window despite 61% drop in dollar supply
McCaleb, co-founder of Ripple sells 28.6 million XRP
Oil prices rally high on incoming COVID-19 relief program
Cryptocurrency
XRP in deep crisis, drops 21%
The plunge pushed XRP’s market cap down to about $9 billion or 1.32% of the total crypto market value.
XRP is sure having a bad time amid the bullish trend prevailing relatively at the crypto market.
What you should know: At the time of writing this report, XRP was trading at $0.19223 down 21.07% on the day. It was the largest one-day percentage loss since Dec. 23.
The rice plunge pushed XRP’s market cap down to about $9 billion or 1.32% of the total crypto market value.
READ: Crypto robber behind over $200 million theft, found
- At its highest, XRP’s market value was $31.6 billion
- XRP had traded in a range of $0.19217 to $0.22278 in the previous 24 hours.
- At its present price, XRP is still down 94.16% from its all-time high of $3.29 set on January 4, 2018.
READ: Hackers, expose crypto wallets worth $150 million at Kucoin
What this means: The crypto asset has been losing value at record levels on reports that the world’s most valuable crypto exchange, Coinbase, recently announced that it wouldn’t allow XRP trading, in response to the United States Securities and Exchange Commission taking legal action against Ripple.
READ: Bitcoin obeys law of gravity, drops $1,200
- According to a statement released by Coinbase’s Chief Legal Officer, Paul Grewal, Coinbase disclosed that it was suspending XRP trading starting from January 19 at 10:00 am PST.
- The American crypto exchange further explained that “XRP trading may be stopped earlier as needed to maintain the exchange’s market health metrics.
Meanwhile, Ripple in its most recent press release, disclosed it was ready to fight the allegations issued by the United States Securities and Exchange Commission against the company.
For historical context read: Fear of U.S Financial regulators cripple XRP, tumbles by 61%
“The SEC’s decision to file this action is not just about Ripple, it is an attack on the entire crypto industry here in the United States. We’ve always said that there is a dangerous lack of regulatory clarity for crypto in the U.S. — their lawsuit has already affected countless innocent XRP retail holders with no connection to Ripple.
READ: SEC restrains fintech company, Chaka from advertising or offering for sale shares
“It has also needlessly muddied the waters for exchanges, market makers, and traders. The SEC has introduced more uncertainty into the market, actively harming the community they’re supposed to protect. It’s no surprise that some market participants are reacting conservatively as a result,” Ripple said in the statement.
Cryptocurrency
McCaleb, co-founder of Ripple sells 28.6 million XRP
McCaleb the co-founder of Ripple sold 28.6 million XRP — roughly $8.5 million
Crypto analyst, Leonidas Hadjiloizou, recently revealed via his Twitter handle that McCaleb, the co-founder of Ripple, sold 28.6 million XRP — roughly $8.5 million at the time of drafting this report — following 25 days of no sale activity after news broke of the Ripple SEC lawsuit.
Jed's Tacostand had paused XRP sales ever since the SEC lawsuit was announced. After 25 days of no sales, 28.6 million XRP was sold today. pic.twitter.com/XTMgmvDFZF
— Leonidas Hadjiloizou (@LeoHadjiloizou) January 18, 2021
At the time of writing this report, XRP traded at $0.288355 with a daily trading volume of $5.6 billion. XRP is down 1.09% for the day.
READ: Fear of U.S Financial regulators cripple XRP, tumbles by 61%
Recall that some days ago, Nairametrics revealed Ripple’s co-founder and one of the largest owners of XRP, Jed McCaleb, gained massively from selling XRP in 2020.
Despite Ripple’s legal troubles with the powerful American financial regulator, Jed McCaleb was able to gain $411 million in XRP sales throughout 2020, bringing his total gains from selling XRP to $546 million.
READ: Winklevoss brothers become crypto billionaires
- It’s important to note that McCaleb left Ripple several years ago and went on to launch his own crypto company known as Stellar.
- As of the start of Q3 2020, he was selling an average of 1.74 million XRP daily which, at that time, was estimated to be worth $547,438.
According to Whale Alert’s research, the co-founder still owns 3.274 billion XRP.
READ: Ripple is selling 33% of its ownership in MoneyGram
Recently, XRP has been losing value at record levels since reports that the world’s most valuable crypto exchange, Coinbase, announced that it wouldn’t allow XRP trading, in response to the United States Securities and Exchange Commission taking legal action against Ripple.
Cryptocurrency
Investors worry over future of Crypto under a Joe Biden Presidency
U.S Treasury Secretary nominee, Janet Yellen has referred to cryptos to be of a “particular concern”.
Global investors and crypto traders are becoming wary of what the future holds for crypto under a Joe Biden Presidency.
This is because the person expected to lead the U.S Treasury, Janet Yellen referred to crypto as of “particular concern” when it comes to terrorist financing and money laundering.
- The incoming finance leader believes that most cryptos are used for illicit financing.
- She raised such bias during her Senate confirmation hearing yesterday.
READ: Illicit financial flows: Nigeria lost $157.5 billion in almost 10 years – Buhari
Responding to a question from a U.S senator on how to tackle threats relating to terrorist financing, she elaborated on the role digital assets played as regards such channels.
“We need to make sure that our methods for dealing with these matters — with terrorist financing — change along with changing technology […] Cryptocurrencies are a particular concern. I think many are used at least in a transaction sense mainly for illicit financing and I think we really need to examine ways in which we can curtail their use and make sure that anti-money laundering doesn’t occur through those channels,” Yellen said.
READ: EFCC and CBN intensifies fight against financial fraudsters
What you should know: At press time, the crypto market was down by 2.69% with a total market value of $1.01 trillion, trading at $35,200 with a daily trading volume of $57.5 billion. Bitcoin is down 4.04% for the day.
Also, according to a recent survey conducted by one of Europe’s biggest banks, several market experts anticipate that the flagship crypto asset, Bitcoin, and a leading tech company have their prices highly inflated.
More than half of the market experts that took part in the survey disclosed that the most popular crypto could lose about 50% of its present value ad thus more likely to drop to the $18k range over the next year.
READ: Africa’s richest woman has been dragged to court for corruption
Deutsche Bank’s strategist, Jim Reid pointed out that Bitcoin was giving signs of a market bubble. He said:
“When asked specifically about the 12-month fate of bitcoin and Tesla—a stock emblematic of a potential tech bubble—a majority of readers think that they are more likely to halve than double from these levels with Tesla more vulnerable according to readers.”
Cryptocurrency
Ethereum on rampage, breaks above its 2 year high
The leading altcoin was trading at $1,377 thus within striking distance of $1,400.
The world’s utility crypto is fired up on all cylinders on the basis it just ascended past its 2 years high.
At the time of drafting this report, Ethereum traded at $1,415 with a daily trading volume of $35.3 billion. Ethereum is up 13.95% for the day.
What you should know: Ethereum is a cryptocurrency designed for decentralized applications and deployment of smart contracts, which are created and operated without any fraud, interruption, control or interference from a third party.
- Ethereum 2.0 is an upgrade to the Ethereum network that helps in improving the network’s scalability.
Through the implementation of several, efficiency, enhancements, scalability, and speed the Ethereum network becomes better without compromising its decentralization and security.
What this means: Key reasons attributed to the remarkable rise of Ethereum include the rise of many #DeFi projects running on the #Ethereum network as seen in 2020, #Ethereum flipped Bitcoin in terms of network fees.
- Users spent almost $600M in fees on the Ethereum network last year – 83% more than on Bitcoin.
In 2020, #Ethereum flipped #Bitcoin in terms of network fees.
Users spent almost $600M in fees on the Ethereum network last year – 83% more than on Bitcoin.
Data: @glassnode pic.twitter.com/SMSHbkFHuC
— Rafael Schultze-Kraft (@n3ocortex) January 9, 2021
