Binance
decided to delist Mithrill Cash (MITH) project and remove it from trading. MITH
has subsequently asked for the return of 200,000 BNB tokens collateral that was
deposited with Binance. The capitalisation of the failed project is estimated
at $6 million, while the collateral is now worth $54 million. The issue is that
this amount of BNB was around $1 million at a time when the deposit was made in
2018. Binance CEO, Changpeng Zhao, known as CZ in the crypto world, responded by
saying that this collateral exists because the project developers constantly
support it, including trading volume and liquidity and level of communication.
CZ tweeted that the Binace team has made the right decision to deduct the
collateral since the project’s website is no longer being updated and the market
community has not received any news about the project for the last two years.
The price of the token is 96% below its peak values and, most importantly, it
is below a certain threshold that should not be crossed. According to the
contract with Mithrill Cash revealed by CZ, this threshold is set at $0.15 and
was violated by the project for eight times this amount and is now at $0.00447.
The other recent
big story of the week is that an
investor decided to change $3 million in USDT to USDC. The investor from China kept
his USDT in the Ledger cryptowallet and decided to use the Changelly platform
to exchange tokens because it promised real-time arrival without registration.
After a swift first test the investor encountered registration issues as the
platform would not let him proceed without being compliant with a KYC procedure.. The procedure was compliant
as the investor had already made a significant transfer amount order. This
issue was debated with the service for
several weeks until the support managers refused to continue any
communications.
The issue
is that such KYC procedures are made mandatory by the fifth directive of the
European Union, as they were 5AMLD approved in 2018. So, Changelly has the
right to hold the transaction until the client is complied with KYC procedures.
Most blocking of transactions are usually made because of money laundering via
cryptocurrency or it is authorised by the legal authorities of the EU. Many
incidents of this kind are seen in the market as platforms and services want to
perform legal business in the EU and comply with EU regulations. So, investors
have to use other decentralised services if they do not want to confirm the sources
of their income or otherwise they will fail to comply with other KYC
procedures.
The Federal
Reserve (Fed) has raised its interest rates by 50 basis points and confirmed
its hawkish monetary stance for the whole 2023. The majority of the Federal
Open Market Committee (FOMC) members predict that interest rates will reach above
5% by the end of next year. So, it is too early to think about any possible
relief in monetary tightening since the Fed is committed to get inflation under
control and would not underestimate any treats on this path.
This week
investors will monitor the Core PCE Index as this index is valuable for the Fed
to make interest rates decisions. FOMC Minutes from its December meeting, that
will be published January 4, will be in focus too. Nevertheless, even without
this information the demand for risky assets will continue to go down. BTC
prices are expected to decline to $15,000 per coin and continue to fall further
towards $10,000.