Here’s what happened in crypto today

Need to know what happened in crypto today? Here is the latest news on daily trends and events impacting Bitcoin price, blockchain, DeFi, NFTs, Web3 and crypto regulation.

Binance is considering taking legal action against payment provider and former partner Checkout.com. Bitcoin and Ether prices tumbled, causing a host of liquidations in what’s been described as a “bloodbath’. Meanwhile, other cryptocurrencies took a sharp dip, causing market analysts to offer several possible explanations for the sell-off.

Binance considers legal action against Checkout.com

Crypto exchange Binance told Cointelegraph on Aug. 18 that it is considering legal action against its former partner and payment provider Checkout.com. The potential legal dispute came roughly one week after Checkout.com reportedly ended its business relationship with Binance over possible regulatory actions. 

“We do not agree with Checkout’s purported basis for termination and are considering our options for legal action,” a Binance spokesperson told Cointelegraph. 

The business fallout has already impacted Binance. Earlier this week, the company confirmed that it is shutting down Binance Connect, a regulated fiat-to-crypto payment platform, due to “changing market and user needs.” Binance Connect launched in March 2022 as Bifinity. 

Today we charged Binance Holdings Ltd. (Binance); U.S.-based affiliate, BAM Trading Services Inc., which, together with Binance, operates https://t.co/swcxioZKVP; and their founder, Changpeng Zhao, with a variety of securities law violations.https://t.co/H1wgGgR5ir pic.twitter.com/IWTb7Et86H

— U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (@SECGov) June 5, 2023

Binance faces myriad regulatory challenges culminating in a Securities and Exchange Commission lawsuit against the exchange and its CEO, Changpeng Zhao.

Bitcoin, Ether price slump leads to crypto bloodbath with $1B in liquidations

The Bitcoin and Ether price slump on Aug .18 saw the top two cryptocurrencies fall to a 2-month low and triggered a series of liquidations for thousands of derivative traders.

The crypto bloodbath led to billions of dollars worth of hedged positions being liquidated and several traders lost millions of dollars in a single trade.

According to Coinglass data, a total of 176,752 traders got liquidated over the past 24 hours. 90% of these liquidations took place within the last 12 hours, indicating a rapid rise in price volatility just days after BTC and ETH recorded their lowest daily volatility in several years.

Among a sea of traders that lost a significant chunk of their derivative positions, two particular liquidations caught the crypto community’s eye for the sheer scale of it. During the price slump, an investor on Binance’s ETHBUSD contract was liquidated at $1,434.37 losing $55.9211 million, making it the largest liquidation for the day. Another Binance trader on the BTCUSDT contract lost nearly $10 million in liquidations.

The billion-dollar liquidation is the biggest liquidation event in crypto in the past 8 months, after the last such event during the FTX collapse.

The price function in the crypto market was attributed to several factors including the SpaceX Bitcoin write down, the macroeconomics, where BTC and ETH have been trading in a range for the past couple of months.

BTC held onto the key $28,000 support for a couple of months while ETH held the $1,500 support before giving in yesterday. The liquidity in the crypto market has been on the lower side, and prominent crypto exchanges like Coinbase had seen a significant decline in their trading volume.

Bitcoin, crypto markets take a sudden dip

Within just a 10-minute window, the price of Bitcoin fell as much as 8% to $25,409, its lowest level in two months.

Other cryptocurrencies saw a similar dip, with the top 15 cryptocurrencies by marketcap (with the exception of stablecoins) posting red candles.

#Bitcoin price briefly dips below $26K yesterday, falling to two-month lows. pic.twitter.com/qX2JwY928V

— CoinMarketCap (@CoinMarketCap) August 18, 2023

However, market analysts have had differing views as to what caused the sudden dip. Some suggest a report that Elon Musk’s SpaceX had sold its Bitcoin holdings or the bankruptcy of Chinese property firm Evergrande could have played a role.

Others have seen the rise of government bond yields, possible hikes in interest rates in the United States, or the risk of the Chinese Yuan devaluation as factoring into the price dip.

This article does not contain investment advice or recommendations. Every investment and trading move involves risk, and readers should conduct their own research when making a decision.