🏓 USD weakening

Hello, crypto-enthusiasts! Among other topics, today we talk about the Bithumb ex-chairman's fate in the near future, as well as about the new rise of cryptocurrencies.

Your Favorite Crypto Digest From TradeCrypto.com #155

The statistics:

The market today is green. BTC is now trading above $20,100, ETH is trading around $1,400.

💪 Bitcoin dominance: 41.45%

📉 Total Cryptocurrency Market Cap: $ 0.933 tr

😲 Fear and greed index: 33 (Fear)

🚀 Gainers (Top-100)

• Toncoin (TON)+17.01%

• Cardano (ADA)+12.23%

• Lido DAO (LDO)+11.57%

😭 Losers (Top-100)

• Aptos (APT)-2.07%

• Klaytn (KLAY)-1.74%

• Quant (QNT)-1.66%

Terra Witness Skips Official Inquiry, Cites 'Extreme Stress' and 'Panic Disorder'

Kim Seo-joon, CEO of venture capital firm Hashed and an early investor in Terra, failed to turn up as a witness 👥 before a hearing of the Korean National Assembly’s Political Affairs Committee. Seo-joon was one of six witnesses summoned to better investigate the circumstances that led to Terra’s $40 billion collapse back in May.

In a statement, he said, 💬 "After the Luna-Terra incident, I was under extreme stress, and my health deteriorated and I needed to stabilize." The letter also claims Seo-joon is suffering from “anxiety” and “panic disorder.” He enclosed a medical certificate confirming he has been receiving psychiatric treatment since July 29, is under added stress as a result of the medication and counseling regime, and “is in absolute need of emotional stability at this time.” Such a pity.

BitMEX Names Stephan Lutz Interim CEO As Hoeptner Steps Down

BitMEX has named chief financial officer Stephan Lutz interim CEO after Alexander Hoeptner left "with immediate effect." "Together with the rest of the management team and our talented staff members, I will make sure that BitMEX continues to deliver great, innovative crypto trading 💱 products and a secure and stable trading environment for our clients," Lutz told. The company said Lutz will continue in his role as CFO, but wouldn't be commenting further on Hoeptner's departure. Good luck with his new role.

CashApp adds support for Bitcoin Lightning Network

A nice move. According to a new page added to its support section on Oct. 25, Cash App — a mobile phone payment processing app created by Block Inc. — has added support 🤝 for transactions via the Bitcoin Lightning Network. Lightning is ideal for small transactions, with near-instant processing times, compared with the minutes to hours required on the Bitcoin blockchain.

Cash App had already supported Bitcoin transactions on the Lightning Network in a limited capacity, with users limited to paying 💸 for invoices via scanning Lightning QR codes. Now, all Cash App transactions involving QR codes will default through Lightning unless otherwise specified. This new feature has a transaction limit of $999 every seven days and is only available to United States customers, excluding residents of New York state.

Near Foundation sets up $40M fund to bail out USN investors in case of collapse

Near Protocol’s in-house stablecoin, USN, recently became undercollateralized, forcing Near Foundation to recommend winding down USN to prevent a situation similar to the Terra (LUNA) and TerraUSD (UST) collapse. Supporting this move, the Near Foundation opened up a $40 million 💰 fund to protect investors and help them cash out of USN with equal amounts of wrapped Tether (USDT.e). The USN Protection Program aims to cover the collateral gap of $40 million, which the foundation confirmed was not linked to the Near Protocol token price. A smart twist.

Bithumb ex-chairman could face 8 years prison over alleged $70M fraud

Someone will be very upset. The former chairman of the South Korean cryptocurrency exchange 💱 Bithumb, Lee Jung-hoon, could face a possible maximum sentence of eight years in prison if found guilty on charges related to an alleged fraud worth $70 million.

It’s alleged that Jung-hoon defrauded $100 billion won or $70 million from Kim Byung Gun, chairman of the cosmetic surgery company BK Group in October 2018 during negotiations for Gun to purchase 💸 the Bithumb exchange. Gun alleges he paid $70 million to Jung-hoon as a “down payment” towards buying the exchange on the condition that it lists a token called BXA. The proceeds from the token listing would’ve allegedly gone towards helping pay for the acquisition, but Bithumb never listed it and the deal fell apart.

Chinese agents used Bitcoin transactions through Wasabi to allegedly bribe US government employee

In an announcement, the Justice Department said Guochun He and Zheng Wang attempted to obstruct the prosecution of an unnamed global telecommunications company based in China, which allegedly involved paying a U.S. government employee roughly $61,000 in bribes using Bitcoin. However, the individual was a double agent 🕵️‍♂️ working on behalf of the Federal Bureau of Investigation and did not move against authorities in the Eastern District of New York in the case against the China-based company. Bad luck for the guys.

Friday after-work drinks with Twitter's new owner Elon Musk, who's in?

Crypto-friendly billionaire Elon Musk is set to finalize the acquisition of social media platform Twitter by Friday, Oct. 28 which brings to a close the protracted Musk-Twitter saga. Musk vowed to the banks assisting with the roughly $13 billion of financing 💰 for the deal that it would be closed by the end of the week and the banks have completed the final credit agreement, one of the last steps before sending the money to Musk.

Musk has also reportedly notified his co-investors who are helping him fund the acquisition by sending over paperwork for the financing commitment which includes venture capital firm Sequoia Capital, crypto exchange 💱 Binance, and Qatar’s Investment Authority. Musk intends to close the transaction at a price of $54.20 per share.

Conclusion: It was great to see the sudden rise in the cryptocurrency market yesterday. But it's too early to get excited. We can all see that the global cause is the weakness of the U.S. dollar. Even the euro is back to parity. Hopefully, this will turn into a trend and a new money printing press launches. We need an engine to go to the moon.

See you tomorrow, folks! Thanks for being with us :) Brought to you by Maksym, Svyat, and Aleksandar :)

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What is Crypto Ping Pong digest?

TC lads here are working quite hard and from time to time we gotta chill. Recently, we got ourselves a ping pong table to complete our lazy-bag-stuffed chill zone. As you all know our main hobby is Crypto, so even while we play we don’t really shut up about it. Ever.

So memes, leaks, gossips naturally come about – we collect them and share them with you in this interstellar space on our site we like to call Crypto Ping Pong digest.