Read in the Digest:
- TerraUSD peg falls under $0.7 as LUNA loses 60% – Binance suspends withdrawals.
- India considers imposing 28% GST on all crypto transactions.
- Azuki founder credits NFT success to past failures and sees floor price plummet.
- ApeCoin becomes third most-purchased coin by top-100 ETH whales despite downtrend.
- Nigeria to upgrade its CBDC, the eNaira, to increase coverage.
TerraUSD Peg Falls Under $0.7 as LUNA Loses 60% – Binance Suspends Withdrawals
Terra (LUNA) suffered its biggest single-day loss on Monday as the flagship algorithmic TerraUSD (UST) stablecoin plunged to an all-time low of $0.6841.
LUNA, which previously traded as high as $65.14, fell flat, dropping to as low as $24.14 as the UST dollar peg broke. LUNA is now trading at $32 as of this writing, having made a marginal recovery in the last 8 hours.
The 7 day price chart for Terra (LUNA). Source: CoinMarketCap
The unexpected plunge saw Terra (LUNA) drop out of the top 10 cryptos ranked by market cap, as it sank by over $9.5 billion in the space of a few hours.
Over the weekend, UST fell to sub-$0.99 levels, forcing the Luna Foundation Guard (LFG) into action. However, the measures were unable to keep the UST from experiencing further drops.
Further piling on the misery, the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchange, Binance, has suspended all withdrawals of LUNA and UST tokens, citing “network slowness and congestion.” Binance intends to reopen withdrawals once the network is stable.
Flipsider:
- UST has recovered some of its losses, with its USD peg now at $0.92.
Why You Should Care
As a result of the UST being backed by Bitcoin, the broken peg has exacerbated the losses suffered by BTC and the broader crypto market.
India Considers Imposing 28% GST on All Crypto Transactions
The Indian cryptocurrency industry, which has been reeling since the government announced a flat 30% tax on crypto-generated income, could soon experience further struggles.
The Goods and Services Tax (GST) Council of India is now reportedly considering a proposal to impose a 28% tax on all cryptocurrency transactions.
Services provided by crypto exchanges are currently subject to an 18% tax. The included cryptocurrency activities cover the selling and purchasing of crypto tokens on various exchanges, holding assets in centralised or decentralised wallets, and staking on various platforms.
According to the reports, a committee has already been set up to consider the proposal of imposing a 28% GST on all activities and services related to crypto. The proposal may be tabled as early as the very next meeting between the GST Council.
Flipsider:
- India is working on a framework to facilitate the creation of an official digital currency by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI).
Why You Should Care
If approved, the legislative decision could cause the Indian crypto community, which is already required to pay gargantuan taxes, to shrink further.
Azuki Founder Credits NFT Success to Past Failures and Sees Floor Price Plummet
On Monday night, the pseudonymous founder of the popular Azuki non-fungible token (NFT) project, Zagabond, revealed his involvement in past abandoned NFT projects in a blog post.
In the blog post, which was published to share his “Builder’s Journey” leading up to Azuki, Zagabond stated that he had been part of three NFT projects that were abandoned by their founding team, ‘Cryptophunks‘, ‘Tendies‘ and ‘Cryptozunks‘.
According to Zagabond, the failures of these projects acted as “formative times” for him, and he even credited much of Azuki’s success to what he learned from the failures of those projects.
The news was not well received by the Twitter (NYSE:TWTR) crypto community, with the host of a Twitter Space titled “The Death of Azuki” boldly asserting that “Azuki is dead.”
Flipsider:
- Following the revelation by Azuki’s founder, the collection’s floor price plummeted by as much as 45%, from close to 19 ETH (or $41,800 USD at today’s prices) to approximately 10.9 ETH. The floor price of Azuki is now at 15.9 ETH.
Source: Azuki
Why You Should Care
The incident has reignited conversations and calls for founder transparency around NFT projects.
ApeCoin Becomes Third Most-Purchased Coin by Top-100 ETH Whales Despite Downtrend
ApeCoin, which swiftly became the most-traded coin by Ethereum whales within a short time after its launch, seems to have caught the fancy of Ethereum investors. APE has since gone on to become the third most-purchased coin by whales.
Since its launch in March, Ethereum’s top 100 richest bagholders have quietly, but steadily increased their stakes in ApeCoin (APE), the native asset of the ApeCoin ecosystem.
According to data from WhaleStats, the top 100 Ethereum Wallets have an average ApeCoin purchase amount of $157,609, and an average quantity of 12,721 APE.
Excluding Ethereum (ETH) and the USD Coin (USDC) stablecoin, ApeCoin ranks as the most purchased crypto by the top 100 Ethereum whales.
Flipsider:
- ApeCoin ranks as one of the biggest losers in the ongoing market sell-off, having seen its value decline 21% over the last 24 hours, and by as much as 43% in the last week.
The 7 day price chart for ApeCoin (APE). Source: CoinMarketCap
Why You Should Care
The popularity of the Bored Ape Yacht Club NFT collection, and use of APE in the ‘Otherside’ Metaverse land sale, continues to drive accumulation of ApeCoin.
Nigeria to Upgrade Its CBDC, the eNaira, to Increase Coverage
The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) is progressing with plans to improve the country’s central bank digital currency, the eNaira, to include a wider range of goods and services.
According to a report, on May 9th, Bariboloka Koyor, the CBN Controller, spoke at a market in Lagos, the most populated city in Nigeria, as part of a marketing campaign dedicated to “raising awareness” about the eNaira among businesses in the country.
Koyor said that the upgrade will improve the speed and use of the eNaira, and went on to highlight that the app “will permit users to do transactions like paying for DSTV or electric bills or even making flight tickets payments” from next week.
He adds that the eNaira app will incurr zero transaction fees, and will be comparatively faster than other mobile banking apps used in the country. He added that, in future, the only way to receive financial aid from the government will be via eNaira.
Flipsider:
- Despite the ban on crypto in the country, Nigeria’s P2P trade volume has continued to increase so far in 2022.
Why You Should Care
According to a report, Nigeria’s ban on crypto has crippled international funding in the fintech industry, which has adversely affected millions
