🗞 Daily Crypto News, May, 20th💰

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Welcome to the Daily Crypto News: A complete News Review, Coin Calendar and Analysis. Enjoy!

🗞 Market Wrap: Capitulation City as Bitcoin Dumps to $31K, ETH to $2K Before Reversal

Bitcoin’s 24-hour range: $31,926-$43,602 (CoinDesk 20)

Ether’s 24-hour range: $2,089-$3,447 (CoinDesk 20)

Trading volumes surge

Bitcoin 'scare factor' proven on exchanges

Over the past week, and based on closing data from Tuesday, activity involving investors depositing bitcoin on exchanges has declined by about 40% to around 51,000 transactions, according to data aggregator Glassnode.

“A huge market is scared,” said Greg Magadini, chief executive officer for data aggregator Genesis Volatility.

Bitcoin dominance roars back

“Buyers today will be rewarded, at least short term, for picking up coins at discount prices,” Al-Mashita said. “Elon’s tweets are quite eccentric and unfounded from his end, but show the fickle nature of this market reacting to a single participant.”

Ether still outperforming bitcoin

DeFi deflates, ETH fees explode

As the crypto market dumps Wednesday, the amount of cryptocurrency held in decentralized finance, or DeFi, has decreased by $20 billion in the past week. Some of this is due to falling crypto valuations but might also have to do with investors pulling out ASAFP.

“This is why a lot of DeFi projects are moving to Binance Smart Chain or Polkadot, etc.,” said Kogan. “The future is multichain.”

🗞 Coinbase, Binance Go Down Amid Crypto Crash, Highlighting Appeal of Decentralized Exchanges

Centralized exchanges had trouble keeping up with high trading volumes.

Decentralized exchanges are built differently.

Several large cryptocurrency exchanges had trouble staying open during Wednesday's market crash, which saw Bitcoin and Ethereum lose 30% and 40% of their value, respectively, in 24 hours.

Leading US exchange Coinbase reported "intermittent downtime" throughout the morning, while globally popular exchange Binance paused Ethereum-related token withdrawals, Gemini reportedly experienced lag times, and Kraken noted user "connectivity issues."

But all that isn't to say trading on a DEX has no downside. For starters, tradable assets are often limited to those that use the same blockchain as the DEX, making it less than straightforward to buy assets such as Bitcoin. However, one can buy a "wrapped" version that mimics BTC. And THORChain, which is integrated with trading platform ShapeShift, has emerged as a cross-chain DEX that bypasses the need for Wrapped Bitcoin altogether.

🗞 DeFi Liquidations Up 14-Fold in Broad Crypto Sell-Off

Borrowers on decentralized lending platforms are unwinding positions fast, most likely to avoid expensive liquidations as the global cryptocurrency market tumbles Wednesday.

According to decentralized finance (DeFi) wallet provider Debank, liquidations of collateral are up 14-fold during the most recent bad days on the lending market.

Over the last 24 hours, DeFi platforms have shaken off $662 million in loans, led by the Binance Smart Chain lending application Venus, Aave (versions 1 and 2) and Compound, Debank data shows.

A normal day has liquidations across DeFi products of $1 million to $5 million, according to Debank. On May 12, there were $39 million worth of liquidations.

“Leveraged positions get liquidated at humanly psychological barriers (40k / 3k) and when that collateral is liquidated, it drives the price down more, which triggers more liquidations which then sell at market, which drives the price down more, which triggers more liquidations,” Monahan wrote in an email.

🗞 SoftBank Is Making Multiple Crypto Moves this Month

The Japanese tech incubator giant SoftBank has had an active May so far, making a series of low-key investments in a number of crypto, non-fungible token (NFT) and decentralized finance (DeFi) projects.

In a recent report, the Japanese media outlet Coin Post charted SoftBank’s investment movements in the crypto sphere over the past few weeks – and it appears the company is ready to take a deeper plunge into the crypto sector.

The firm’s CEO Masayoshi Son last year told the tale of his own personal woes with a past bitcoin (BTC) investment experiment he said he is not keen to repeat. And earlier this month, Son told SoftBank investors, Bloomberg reported, that he has no plans to make a Tesla-style bitcoin buy – even before the automaker’s latest statement on the matter.

Furthermore, the tech investor had appeared to have taken a significant step back from crypto last year, when Yahoo Japan, which SoftBank owns a 48% stake in, sold its TaoTao trading platform to the ever-crypto-keen SBI Group.

And on the NFT front, SoftBank has also taken part in angel investment rounds that have raised over UD 4.1m for the digital market platform Epik Prime. Other angel investors in the project included the likes of JPMorgan, Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley – with Warner Music Group, Sony, Universal and China’s Tencent Games also stumping up investment.