Daily Crypto #87

Lido Liquid Staking Platform Hits 5M ETH, Bangkok becoming Asia’s next crypto hub, Gemini and Genesis reach $100M agreement, Binance suspends USD withdrawals

Lido Liquid Staking platform hits 5M ETH milestone ahead of reward withdrawal upgrade

Source: lido.fi

The world’s largest liquid staking platform, Lido, has hit a new milestone for the amount of staked Ethereum. An upcoming Ethereum upgrade will allow the testing of staking reward withdrawals.

On Feb. 7, Lido Finance posted an analytics update that included a milestone for staked Ethereum. According to the Dune Analytics dashboard it cited, Lido crossed 5.05 million ETH staked on Beacon Chain. At current prices, this is worth approximately $8.26 billion.

According to DeFiLlama, Lido is the largest DeFi protocol, with a 14.38% market share. Furthermore, its total value locked is currently $8.43 billion, the vast majority of that being in ETH.

The protocol also noted that its February incentives of 1.95 million LDO tokens were now live.

Is Bangkok becoming Asia’s next crypto hub?

Source: medianama.com

The Crypto Readiness Index, compiled by Recap late last month, revealed that Bangkok is ranked tenth globally. It revealed that the Thai capital has attracted 57 crypto companies, as reported by the Bangkok Post on Feb. 7.

Furthermore, Recap claims that Thailand has the world’s second-highest rate of crypto ownership. This is despite the military-backed government banning digital assets as a payment method last year.

Thailand reaches third rank in Asia

Despite the promising results for Thailand, two Asian countries ranked above it. Hong Kong was in seventh position and Singapore was fourth in the world’s most crypto-ready hubs list, according to Recap. Remarkably, London came up top followed by Dubai.

Howitt warned that tightening crypto regulations may hinder crypto adoption in the Kingdom.

“With stricter rules in place, it’ll be interesting to see whether this helps or hinders Bangkok’s place as a crypto hub in the coming months.”

Nevertheless, the Bank of Thailand and the Kingdom’s ruling regime are still extremely wary of digital assets. Thai financial regulators are tightening rules on the trading of crypto and advertising of digital assets this year.

Gemini and Genesis reach $100M agreement for earn users to recover funds

Source: news.coincu.com

Crypto exchange Gemini and lending company Genesis have reached a $100 million agreement over the Earn program.

Genesis will exchange its existing $1.1 billion note due in 2023 for convertible preferred stock to be issued by Digital Currency Group (DCG) as part of Genesis’ bankruptcy plan. DCG will also refinance its existing 2023 term loans through a new, junior secured term loan in two tranches made payable to creditors in the aggregate total value of approximately $500 million. On Gemini’s part, it will contribute up to $100 million in additional funds to Earn users.

Gemini has posted a page that will provide updates on the matter, which will see updates every Tuesday and Friday until a resolution is reached.

Genesis no better off than Gemini

Genesis is also facing its own share of troubles as it attempts to navigate its bankruptcy. A recent pact with a creditor revealed that DCG was intending to sell Genesis’ crypto trading business and leading arm.

Genesis creditors expect to recover 80% of their funds due to the restructuring. The company is confident that it will exit its bankruptcy and expects this to happen by mid-May 2023.

Binance suspends USD withdrawals as banks flee crypto

Source: binance.com

Binance will temporarily suspend USD bank deposits and withdrawals on Wednesday, Feb. 8, 2023, a spokesperson said.

The spokesperson for the largest exchange said that the suspension will only affect 0.01% of its users and that they hope to restart the service soon.

Binance’s new relationship with Signature offers clues

While the exchange has not provided details on why it is suspending transfers, the size of the user base suggests that a revised relationship with Signature Bank could be at least part of the reason.

A Bloomberg report on Jan. 22, 2023, revealed that 0.01% of Binance’s customers would be affected by a policy change by New York-based Signature Bank to only SWIFT transfers of $100,000 or more, starting on Feb. 1, 2023.