Binance misappropriated $1.78 billion worth of B-Peg USDC collateral between August 17 and 24, 2022, when the asset was valued at $1.78 billion, according to Forbes data online. $1.1 billion were transferred with high frequency to trading company Cumberland/DRW, with the rest going to Amber Group, Alameda Research, and Tron founder Justin Sun. The response letter posted on the Binance blog states that, firstly, money transfers are basically the main behavior for users on the Binance trading platform, since a large number of crypto assets and a large amount of money are deposited into the user account address every day. Users withdraw cash to different wallet addresses. For security reasons, a large amount of money is transferred between hot and cold wallets every day. As for the transfer to the Amber Group, Alameda Research and Justin Sun mentioned in the Forbes article, ‘it seems like all these are spontaneous actions of users of these organizations or individual users. The behavior of the above organizations and individuals regarding money transfers is publicly available on the network address and can be requested by any network user at any time and without any problems.
Secondly, the largest cryptocurrency exchange on the market detailed the issues related to Binance-Peg BUSD in an article: “Binance will regularly rebalance or update the anchor address assets, but until then, it cannot be guaranteed that this rebalancing and updating will be completely real time, so we have increased the frequency of rebalancing and updating to this to ensure that the peg ratio is 1:1. For details, please refer to the Binance-Peg BUSD Operation Guidelines.”
Third, Binance has never embezzled user funds, and centralized exchange assets and B-token collateral always maintain a 1:1 reserve. All user assets can be viewed through the Proof of Reserve (PoR) system. Binance recently managed B-token collateral addresses completely separate from the Central Proof of Reservation (PoR) system addresses, which can be verified through the Token Commitment Confirmation page.
At the same time, an online survey commissioned by crypto exchange Coinbase in February of more than 2,000 American adults found that 80% of respondents said that “the global financial system unfairly supports powerful interests”, and 67% called for “major changes” or “a complete overhaul of “financial system. The survey, conducted by business intelligence firm Morning Consult, aimed to examine perceptions of the global financial system and how U.S. adults and crypto investors see the future of the crypto market and exchanges. It found that despite the recent FUD and bad news from the crypto space, 20% of respondents said they still own crypto and nearly a third plan to buy, sell or trade crypto in the next year. Morning Consult noted that the numbers have remained flat every quarter since January 2022, hovering between 17% and 20% over the past 12 months, meaning that recent market turmoil may not have shaken retail investor confidence in crypto in America. “There is reason to be optimistic about the future of cryptocurrencies. Americans everywhere are frustrated with the inequality in the financial system and yearn for change,” writes Morning Consult. Crypto investors and younger cohorts of Americans still believe that crypto is a worthwhile investment in the future that can bring society.”
Cryptocurrency enthusiasm among young people also remains high. The survey showed that 36% of Gen Zers (born between 1997 and 2013) and 30% of millennials (born between 1981 and 1996) currently own a cryptocurrency. It has also been found that minority groups are more likely to be positive about cryptocurrency and be optimistic about the future of the asset. “Black and Hispanic adults are significantly more likely than white adults to have a favorable impression of crypto and are more optimistic that “cryptocurrency and blockchain are the future” than any other cohort.”
Current crypto investors also remain optimistic about the future, with 65% agreeing that the best days of the market are yet to come, while 76% of crypto investors still believe that the future lies with cryptocurrencies and blockchain. Some market watchers believe that the next bull run will begin when China adopts a more favorable attitude towards cryptocurrencies. However, the survey showed that more Americans would be interested in entering the market if exchanges were more reliable and secure. Among the general population, 67% noted the importance of safe and secure exchanges. In comparison, 91% of crypto investors said that a reliable and secure platform is vital to the crypto market.
Morning Consult conducted the survey between February 10 and 14, interviewing a national sample of 2,202 American adults, as well as an excess sample of 500 US cryptocurrency investors.
Bitcoin is down 0.23% over the past 24 hours, trading slightly changed at $23,509 as of 12 noon in Hong Kong. The leading token lost 5.34% in seven days, according to CoinMarketCap. Ethereum is also treading water at $1,634, down 0.41%. The token has fallen by 4.05% in the last seven days.
Polygon’s Matic token posted the largest drop among the top ten cryptocurrencies by market cap, dropping 3.63% to $1.24 and extending its weekly loss to 16.27%. Polygon Labs, developer of the Polygon blockchain, said last week that it would lay off 20% of its workforce, followed by a disruption to the Polygon network. Solana shed 2.43% to $22.69, posting a weekly loss of 13.41%. The Solana developers are investigating a network glitch in the Solana Mainet beta last Saturday, forcing it to restart the network and downgrade from a recent update. Shiba Inu fell 2.53% after analytics firm Lookonchain reported that the wallet transferred 182 billion Shiba Inu tokens to crypto exchanges on Monday, usually a sign of preparations for a sale that could send prices down. The last time the same wallet transferred over 200 billion shitcoins in December 2022, the price dropped over 7% in a day, according to Lookonchain. The token is down 7.21% over a seven-day period.
The total capitalization of the crypto market decreased by 0.15% to $1.07 trillion, while the total trading volume jumped by 34.55% in the last 24 hours to $45.70 billion.
US stocks rose on Monday after falling last week on concerns over indicators showing that inflation remains entrenched. The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 0.22%, the S&P 500 added 0.31% and the Nasdaq Composite added 0.63%.
In light of the above, investors are advised to take some time to think before making any investment. One of the legitimate forms of investment is, for example, the ASTL investment project, which allows investors to have the opportunity to directly invest fiat and cryptocurrency assets in a stable passive income that obviously exceeds inflationary expectations and is not subject to any sanctions, blocking and confiscation. The ASTL project is a simple and elegant solution for potential investors – an investment in the development of the real sector of a diversified portfolio of cryptocurrencies, with a fairly high ROI (up to 12% annually) with payments in stablecoin (USDT). Details can be found at https://astl.io.
