Ethereum's native token Ether (ETH) slumped on June 16, suggesting that its relief rally, coinciding with the Federal Reserve announcing it will hike the benchmark rate by 0.75%, is at risk. Ether bulls trapped? Ether's price slipped by 9.2% to around $1,120 per token a day after it rebounded by 23% after dropping to almost $1,000, its worst level since January 2021. The ETH/USD pair's upside move, followed by a sharp correction, appeared in tandem with U.S. stocks, confirming that it traded like a risk-asset. The decline means that Ether has shed 77% of its value since November 2021 and …

Just two weeks after appearing in an ask me anything (AMA) with Celsius founder Alex Mashinsky, crypto Youtuber Ben Armstrong has announced he intends to file a class-action lawsuit against the lending platform and its chief executive. Armstrong made legal threats via Twitter on Wednesday and has since provided more detail in multiple threads. His issue is centered on being unable to pay down loans with existing funds on the platform, and instead, having to deposit new funds to pay the loans off: “[Our account rep] told us we had enough money in our account to pay off a loan. …

The price of Nexo (NEXO) continued to fall on June 15 as crypto lending firms continue to be shaken by the falling cryptocurrency market. Meanwhile, Nexo has denied rumors of exposure to Three Arrows Capital (3AC), a Dubai-based crypto fund facing insolvency risks. NEXO price suffers on DeFi contagion fears NEXO, which serves as a security token at a cryptocurrency lending platform of the same name, fell nearly 25% to $0.61 a unit, its lowest price reading since January 2021. The massive intraday decline came as a part of a broader downside move this week, which stretched NEXO's losses to …

Crypto lending platform Celsius Network has onboarded restructuring lawyers from Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld to find potential solutions to the firm’s financial woes. The firm is reportedly looking for other strategic alternatives, such as a financial restructuring, apart from its attempts to solve its current problems. The report also noted that Celsius is trying to find investors who would be able to provide financing options for the crypto lending company. Citing extreme market conditions, Celsius paused withdrawals from its platform on Monday. Amid the withdrawal freeze, the firm has unstaked around $247 million in wrapped Bitcoin (wBTC) from …

Su Zhu, co-founder of Singapore-based crypto venture capital firm Three Arrows Capital (3AC), has put out a cryptic statement on Twitter in response to swirling rumors that the company is battling against insolvency. Online chatter about 3AC being unable to meet a margin call began after 3AC started moving assets around this week to top up funds on decentralized finance (DeFi) platforms such as Aave to avoid potential liquidations amid the tanking price of Ether (ETH) this week. There are unconfirmed reports that 3AC faced liquidations totaling hundreds of millions from multiple positions. DeFi-banking platform Celsius has also been frantically …

The Iowa Insurance Division, or IID, a regulator responsible for many securities sales in the state, has fined crypto lending firm BlockFi more than $943,000 after it allegedly offered and sold unregistered securities. In a Tuesday announcement, the state regulator said BlockFi had “offered and sold securities in Iowa that were not registered or permitted for sale in Iowa” in addition to not being registered as a broker-dealer or agent, in violation of the state’s Securities Act. The IID ordered BlockFi to pay $943,396.22 as an administrative fine as well as to cease and desist “from making any untrue statement …

Ethereum's native token Ether (ETH) fell to as low as $950 on Uniswap—a decentralized crypto exchange— this June 13, about 20% lower than its spot rate across other exchanges. Over $130M ETH sold in six hours The incident happened at around 3:00 am UTC after a whale dumped 65,000 ETH for multiple "stablecoins," including USD Coin (USDC), Tether (USDT) and Dai (DAI). A piece of evidence noted that the whale sold its ETH holdings to pay off nearly $73 million worth of debt at Oasis.app, a DeFi lending platform. The duration of the sell-off saw ETH's liquidation price dropping from …

The ongoing crisis of Celsius’s native token has nothing to do with the stablecoin provider Tether and will not impact its USDT reserves, according to the company. Tether issued a statement on Monday regarding the major cryptocurrency lending platform Celsius halting withdrawals due to its rumored liquidity crisis. According to the statement, Tether’s lending activity with Celsius has “always been overcollateralized” as with any other borrower and “has no impact” on the company’s reserves. The announcement also described the ongoing issues with Celsius as an “unfortunate result of market volatility and extreme market conditions.” The Tether company is the issuer …

There’s a glimmer of hope for the bear market’s most recent victim. Following reports that Celsius is insolvent, Nexo is offering a buy-out. A Nexo representative told Cointelegraph that Nexo is trying to do the “right thing” as they are “mindful of the repercussions for retail investors & the crypto community.” Celsius suspended all network withdrawals on Monday; users are not able to access their funds. In an open letter, Nexo has extended a formal offer to acquire qualifying assets of Celsius Network after their withdrawal freeze. The letter states: “Nexo, its partners, and affiliates could readily acquire from Celsius …

Crypto staking and lending platform Celsius may be dealing with its rumored liquidity crisis by unstaking $247 million worth of Wrapped Bitcoin (wBTC) from Aave and sending it to the FTX exchange. Speculations among the crypto community are now flaring as the project has been moving massive amounts of wBTC, Ether (ETH) and other crypto assets, in addition to pausing withdrawals for users. Celsius users have criticized the platform for how they believe the project has mismanaged its funds following the collapse of the Anchor Protocol on the now-named Terra Classic blockchain. The project could be addressing those concerns with …

The next big crypto crash could be around the corner due to Lido Staked Ether (stETH), a liquid token from the Lido protocol that is supposed to be 100% pegged by Ethereum’s native token, Ether (ETH). Notably, the stETH peg could drop against ETH by 50% in the coming weeks, raising the risk of a “DeFi contagion” as Ethereum moves toward proof-of-stake (PoS), argues popular Bitcoin investor and independent analyst Brad Mills. Over 1M Ether liability risks default In detail, investors deposit ETH in Lido’s smart contracts to participate in The Merge, a network upgrade aiming to make Ethereum a …

Unsecured lending protocol TrueFi has become the latest project to launch on Optimism, Ethereum’s popular layer-2 scaling solution, in a move that’s expected to boost demand from non-institutional lenders. By launching on Optimism, TrueFi’s lender community will have access to a faster and cheaper user experience, as well as gain exposure to a wider pool of retail lenders. “TrueFi users can now lend, borrow and launch portfolios on Optimism to enjoy dramatically reduced transaction costs and network speeds,” Rafael Cosman, co-founder of TrustToken, told Cointelegraph in a written statement. He further explained: “Since Optimism transactions are on average 77x cheaper …