The founder of the Rizz (RIZZ) memecoin experienced a dramatic downturn during a live pitch on X, as the cryptocurrency’s value plummeted by 90% in real-time, leaving viewers in shock.
Nicolas Vaiman, CEO of Bubblemaps, joined the X Space just before the collapse and witnessed the events unfold. Bubblemaps detailed the incident in a thread on X with the heading, “This Space was wild.”
According to Bubblemaps, RIZZ was launched on the Solana platform on June 18.
“With a decent $8M in volume,” the team noted, “the founder was invited to introduce his token on a live Space.”
“However, things quickly deteriorated.
The Bubblemaps team raised questions about the “bubbles” – clusters showing large holdings in a few accounts – displayed on the coin’s bubble map.
The thread revealed that “their team quickly confirmed they controlled over 80% of the supply.”
Bubblemaps indicated that early transactions suggested the sell-off was driven mainly by initial snipers who bought within the first minutes of the token launch.
READ MORE: Bitcoin Drops Below $64,000: Potential Further Decline to $60,000 Amid Market Volatility
Cointelegraph reached out to Nicolas Vaiman, who revealed he joined the Space unexpectedly. During the event, the founder became emotional.
“When the price collapsed, the founder of Rizz sounded emotional, and I felt uncomfortable asking questions. At one point, I even thought he might be crying,” Vaiman said.
Vaiman also mentioned a claim that Rizz founder “Rick” wasn’t actually in control. “Instead,” he said, “a group of devs from Singapore, known for creating meme coins and rugging, were running things.”
“These devs try to keep a large portion of the supply by receiving tokens from the initial deployer wallets and sniping tokens with fresh wallets funded by centralized exchanges.
This makes tracing the wallets difficult, but timing analysis can reveal connections as they snipe tokens very early.”
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On June 19, 2024, the United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) officially closed its investigation into whether Ether should be classified as a security.
Consensys lawyer Laura Brookover stated that crypto markets will see “no more protestations from the SEC that ETH is a security.”
However, Carol Goforth, a professor specializing in business associations and securities regulation, clarified to Cointelegraph, “all the decision means is that at this time, the SEC will not be continuing its investigation. This is not a final determination.”
Consensys believes the SEC’s withdrawal from its investigation of Ethereum has removed a significant burden that threatened the network’s survival.
The “momentous” SEC retreat has settled the dust from negative regulatory concerns regarding ETH as a security. Observers wonder how ETH’s price will react to having a clearer path.
The Ether price has been relatively stable since the SEC stopped its investigation. At publishing time, Ether is down 2%.
Some traders wonder whether ETH will surge and if the altcoin market will follow. Other market observers see great potential for future growth.
Conor O’Neill, community lead and partner of investment analytics company Blockcircle, told Cointelegraph that “the major regulatory barrier” for Ethereum has been removed, setting a significant precedent for regulators worldwide.
The expected launch of spot Ether exchange-traded funds (ETFs) on July 2 will undoubtedly impact the price of ETH.
Traditional markets are expected to inject capital into the ETFs, producing higher demand for ETH and boosting its price.
O’Neill explained that the ETH ETF “is highly likely to have a long-term positive impact on the price of Ethereum.” He mentioned a possible short-term pullback, similar to when Bitcoin ETFs were approved.
However, ETF issuers cannot offer an Ether ETF with staking. Goforth explained, “the SEC has alleged that staking itself involves an investment contract.”
This could harm ETH’s long-term performance as an institutional asset.
Grayscale’s Ethereum Trust, with a valuation over $10 billion, could see major outflows after ETH ETFs launch.
READ MORE: Bitcoin Faces Rare ‘FUD’ Surge Amid Sideways Trading, Analysts Predict Potential Price Surge
However, Grayscale has reduced its fees, indicating it doesn’t want a repeat of the Bitcoin ETF launch.
O’Neill predicted ETH will “follow a similar trajectory to Bitcoin’s price, with a dip followed by an exponential rise.”
He noted that Ethereum’s approval was unexpected, suggesting a bullish scenario where Ethereum might outperform Bitcoin.
The SEC halting its investigation may benefit other altcoins the agency has accused of being securities. O’Neill believes projects such as Aave or Chainlink from the decentralized finance (DeFi) sector or layer-2 chains like Arbitrum and Optimism could benefit from the SEC’s retreat.
However, many offer staking capabilities and are not yet free from SEC scrutiny.
The sudden approval of spot Ether ETFs, the growing number of ETF issuers, and the SEC’s investigation withdrawal signal a potential shift in the SEC’s approach, marking a pivotal moment for Ethereum and the broader cryptocurrency market.
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Michael Dell, founder and CEO of Dell Technologies, has sparked interest with a cryptic message hinting that his company might consider Bitcoin as an investment.
On June 21, Dell tweeted, “Scarcity creates value,” a phrase often associated with Bitcoin due to its limited supply of 21 million tokens.
This tweet caught the attention of Michael Saylor, a well-known advocate for Bitcoin as a corporate treasury asset.
Dell’s repost of Saylor’s reply, along with an image of Cookie Monster eating Bitcoin, fueled speculation that he might invest in the cryptocurrency in the future, either personally or through his company.
This potential Bitcoin investment follows Dell’s recent financial activities, which provide a solid foundation. Dell Technologies’ stock has nearly quintupled since its return to the public market in December 2018.
Over the past 18 months, the company’s Class C common stock surged from $40 to $145 per share, increasing Dell’s net worth to around $120 billion, making him the 14th richest person globally.
In 2024, Dell has already cashed out $2.1 billion while retaining 58% of the company’s ownership.
READ MORE: Bitcoin Drops Below $64,000: Potential Further Decline to $60,000 Amid Market Volatility
This means he has substantial capital available to invest in Bitcoin, especially given concerns about rising U.S. debt and its potential impact on the dollar’s value.
Joe Consorti, an analyst at the Bitcoin Layer, a global macro research firm, believes Bitcoin could benefit companies like Dell Technologies, which might have excess cash due to cost-cutting artificial intelligence technologies.
He stated, “Outsized returns on their reserves during this AI boom will provide a further buffer for capital allocation during a time when spending and scaling in computer manufacturing haven’t been this rapid or hotly contested in decades.”
“Dell is sitting on $5.83 billion in cash to make that happen,” he added. Holding even a small percentage of the balance sheet in Bitcoin—say 1%—could give companies a significant edge over competitors.
For instance, if Dell Technologies allocated 1% of its $5.83 billion cash reserves to Bitcoin, amounting to $58.3 million, this investment could potentially grow to $118.7 million in a year, based on Bitcoin’s historical annualized returns of approximately 103.5% over the past decade.
Historical data suggests that corporations can greatly benefit from Bitcoin investment. For example, Saylor’s MicroStrategy has profited about $6.33 billion from its Bitcoin acquisitions in recent years.
Top investors like Warren Buffett have avoided Bitcoin, but hypothetically, even a 1% allocation to Bitcoin could have significantly boosted returns.
Consorti noted, “Bitcoin is the single best asset to position yourself in for outsized risk-adjusted returns over any multi-year timeframe.
‘You’re simply not working in the best interest of your shareholders if you ignore this without reason.”
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EigenLayer has added a new security feature to its EigenDA data availability service on the Ethereum mainnet to combat Sybil and distributed denial of service attacks.
In an announcement from EigenDA, the whitelist security measure is described as using either an internet protocol address or Ethereum’s elliptic curve digital signature algorithm (ECDSA) authentication for enhanced protection and secure service access.
ECDSA authentication is a cryptographic method that verifies the identity of a user, device, or system.
It relies on public-key cryptography and employs elliptic curve cryptography for secure authentication.
With this additional security measure, EigenLayer aims to safeguard its service while ensuring its availability to all clients.
EigenDA’s free tier offers a throughput of up to 768 kilobytes per 10-minute window, significantly exceeding the requirements of the busiest rollups on Ethereum.
For instance, Base uses fewer than two blobs every 10 minutes.
Moreover, EigenDA allows partners to request increased throughput beyond the free tier, providing a flexible solution for high-demand applications.
Interested parties can collaborate with EigenDA through its partner registration page to tailor solutions for their data needs, supporting various applications and innovations requiring high-throughput capabilities.
READ MORE: Bitcoin Faces Rare ‘FUD’ Surge Amid Sideways Trading, Analysts Predict Potential Price Surge
EigenDA can generate synthetic loads of 0.6 megabytes per second and achieve peak throughputs of up to 10 MB per second on the mainnet.
EigenLayer is also planning to implement permissionless payments for blob throughput on EigenDA by the end of 2024.
This feature will enable users to reserve bandwidth at a fixed rate to meet high throughput demands.
In May, EigenLayer completed the second phase of its EIGEN token airdrop, marking the end of its Season 1 and distributing 113 million EIGEN tokens, which is 6.7% of the allocated supply for airdrops.
Once claimed, tokens will be temporarily locked until the end of the third quarter of 2024.
However, users can still engage in staking and delegation activities with EigenDA operators through the EigenLayer web portal.
Launched on the Ethereum mainnet in April 2024, EigenLayer has already amassed over $12 billion in deposits.
The platform supports new proof-of-stake projects by leveraging a broader trust network, thus eliminating the need for separate security solutions.
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The Chamber of Digital Commerce, a leading blockchain industry trade association, has provided feedback on the U.S. Internal Revenue Service’s (IRS) proposed Form 1099-DA, aimed at reporting digital asset transactions.
The chamber’s response emphasizes the need to simplify the form, making it easier for brokers handling digital assets like cryptocurrencies to use.
It also underscores privacy concerns, advocating for the request of only essential information for reporting purposes.
The chamber criticized the draft form for requesting excessive information, recommending that the final version require only the basic details necessary for tax reporting.
They suggest that brokers should retain additional information for specific IRS examinations only.
Moreover, the chamber raised concerns about the form’s request for sensitive information, such as transaction IDs and digital asset addresses.
They argue that these details could infringe on taxpayer privacy and should only be collected if there is a suspicion of criminal activity.
The feedback also notes that the draft form implies the necessity for specific broker instructions, which were not included.
The chamber advises the IRS to release these instructions for public review before finalizing the form to ensure brokers can accurately complete it.
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Additionally, the chamber suggested that the form should allow brokers to indicate if a digital asset is subject to a different tax rate, such as non-fungible tokens (NFTs) that might be treated as collectibles and taxed at a higher rate.
This, they state, would help prevent errors in IRS processing and ensure accurate tax reporting.
The IRS released the draft form on April 18 and invited comments.
The chamber’s input follows its earlier feedback on related proposed regulations submitted in November 2023.
According to the draft form, brokers will prepare Form 1099-DA for each customer who sells or exchanges digital assets.
Brokers include kiosk operators, digital asset payment processors, hosted wallet providers, unhosted wallet providers, and others.
Following the announcement of the proposed reporting requirements, the crypto community provided feedback.
The Blockchain Association stated that the rule contains “fundamental misunderstandings about the nature of digital assets and decentralized technology.”
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Bitcoin has been experiencing an “extended level of FUD” on social media platform X, coinciding with its sideways trading around the $65,000 mark, as reported by cryptocurrency intelligence platform Santiment.
“This extended level of FUD is rare, as traders continue to capitulate,” Santiment noted in a June 20 post. FUD stands for fear, uncertainty, and doubt.
“The crowd is mainly fearful or disinterested toward Bitcoin as prices range between $65K to $66K,” it added.
Over the past week, Bitcoin’s price has fluctuated between highs of approximately $67,294 and lows around $64,180, based on CoinMarketCap data.
Santiment highlighted its Weighted Sentiment Index, which measures Bitcoin mentions on X and compares the ratio of positive to negative comments.
This index has remained negative since May 23, currently standing at -0.738, indicating predominantly negative mentions of Bitcoin on X.
Positive events for Bitcoin, such as the approval of 11 spot Bitcoin exchange-traded funds on January 10 and the Bitcoin halving on April 20, saw the indicator spike to positive levels of 4.49 and 2.35, respectively.
Negative sentiment on social media has emanated from various corners of the crypto community, including influential traders and analysts.
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“Bitcoin is around 60 days into a ~150-day long sideways slog since the halving,” stated Glassnode lead analyst James Check, known as “Checkmatey,” in a June 19 post.
“Months of sideways price action — the most boring phase of the bull market,” added pseudonymous crypto trader Jelle.
Similarly, pseudonymous crypto trader Trader Cobb remarked, “Bitcoin is pretty boring right now.”
Despite the prolonged consolidation, some believe it could lead to a significant price surge.
Cointelegraph reported on June 13 that Bitcoin was in its longest period of consolidation at 92 days, with analysts suggesting this steadiness could set the stage for a “massive upside rally.”
“Generally, the longer a consolidation, the larger the expansion afterward,” observed pseudonymous crypto trader Daan Crypto Trades.
Meanwhile, another market sentiment gauge, the Fear and Greed Index, showed a Greed reading of 63, down 11 points over the past seven days.
This metric not only considers social media sentiment but also factors like volatility, market momentum and volume, market dominance, and current trends.
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Bitcoin neared six-week lows on June 21, as traders cautioned that buyers were still absent.
Data from Cointelegraph Markets Pro and TradingView showed BTC/USD reaching $63,356 on Bitstamp, indicating another challenging day for Bitcoin’s price.
The cryptocurrency has declined 3.7% week-to-date and 5.75% in June overall, struggling to maintain the $64,000 level.
Skew, a popular trader, noted that although some buying interest was emerging at lower prices, consistent buying was necessary for a broader recovery.
“Potential LTF absorption going on here,” he updated on X. “A lot of shorting by looks of it & spot selling into price around the lows. Need to see buyers push for control to get a bounce.”
Skew also expressed concern about the “lack of real market participation,” attributing price movements to automated trading algorithms.
Roman, another trader, pointed out that Bitcoin seemed to be targeting $60,000 again as it was losing ground at $64,500.
He noted bullish divergences in the RSI and MACD indicators on four-hour timeframes, suggesting a potential rebound.
“Looks like price wants 60k once again as 1D is currently losing 64.5k.
“H4 has bull divs all over RSI/MACD so subject to change,” he wrote.
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Jelle, another trader, commented on Bitcoin’s RSI staying above 30 despite the price drop, calling it “interesting behavior.”
“Bitcoin failed to reclaim the range lows, and continues to bleed lower — while the RSI stays above the 30 level,” he added.
Bitcoin’s latest decline brought it to a critical bull market trendline, the short-term holder cost basis (STHCB), also known as realized price.
At $64,000, this level had provided support since the end of the 2022 bear market. Cointelegraph reported the significance of this event, with On-Chain College stating, “time for Bitcoin to battle.”
He observed, “A nice breakout above the STHCB now, with price at $64.2k and the STHCB at $64k. Let’s see how it interacts at this level throughout the day.”
Keith Alan, co-founder of Material Indicators, highlighted the 21-week simple moving average (SMA) at $63,074 as another critical point.
In his latest video update on X, he warned that order book liquidity was “relatively low” around this area.
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The Blockchain Association is once again opposing the Internal Revenue Service’s (IRS) proposed broker-dealer rules, highlighting the excessive burden these rules would impose on investors, cryptocurrency companies, and the IRS itself.
In a letter, the advocacy group referenced the Paperwork Reduction Act, which mandates that government regulators should not impose unnecessary and complex paperwork requirements on those in the financial system.
The Blockchain Association’s spokespeople argued that implementing these proposed rules would result in 8 billion 1099-DA tax forms needing processing, wasting 4 billion hours of labor, and incurring an annual compliance cost of $254 billion.
The letter presented figures showing that these compliance costs and labor burdens starkly contrast with earlier IRS estimates, it was reported.
The IRS had projected the new regulations would require 0.15 hours per customer to complete, totaling a compliance cost of $136,350,000.
Furthermore, the Blockchain Association argued that annual compliance costs of $245 billion were entirely unreasonable for an asset class and markets that generate a tax gap of at most $10 billion.
In 2023, the Blockchain Association sent a 39-page letter to the IRS, detailing their comprehensive objections to the proposed broker regulations.
The advocacy group described the IRS’s proposed broker reporting rule as government overreach, noting that certain entities within the blockchain ecosystem, such as decentralized finance protocols, would struggle to comply with these rules.
The letter emphasized “fundamental misunderstandings” about cryptocurrencies, digital assets, and decentralized finance among U.S. government officials, who find it challenging to grasp the paradigm shift introduced by blockchain technology.
The proposed tax rules and reporting criteria from the IRS have sparked a significant backlash from the crypto community.
Many individuals and institutions have expressed their disapproval of the requirements, deeming them out-of-touch.
Jerry Brito, executive director at Coin Center, echoed the objections raised in the Blockchain Association’s letter.
He pointed out the logistical difficulties of imposing these reporting requirements on decentralized networks and their participants, further underscoring the impracticality of the proposed rules.
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Apple has decided to delay the release of Apple Intelligence, iPhone Mirroring, and SharePlay Screen Sharing in the European Union due to concerns about the regulations in the Digital Markets Act (DMA), according to multiple reports.
Apple Intelligence is the company’s new artificial intelligence upgrade.
An Apple spokesman told CNBC that “Apple Intelligence is a collection of ‘highly capable’ large language and ‘diffusion models,’ as well as an ‘on-device semantic index’ that worked across apps to identify data and feed it to models.”
This upgrade impacts the Siri voice assistant and other functions, as London Insider reported on Saturday.
iPhone Mirroring allows users to see and control their iPhones from their Macs, while SharePlay Screen Sharing lets FaceTime users control others’ devices during conversations.
Fred Sainz, Apple’s senior director of corporate communications, explained to The Verge, “We are concerned that the interoperability requirements of the DMA could force us to compromise the integrity of our products in ways that risk user privacy and data security.”
Apple is one of six companies the EU has labeled as “gatekeepers” due to their significant market power.
The other gatekeepers are Alphabet, Amazon, ByteDance, Meta, and Microsoft.
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These companies manage 22 “core platform services,” according to EU lawmakers.
The Digital Markets Act, effective since May 2023, imposes specific rules on gatekeepers.
The DMA rules include requirements on interactions with third parties, user control over their data, and business rights to verify advertising on their platforms.
Violating these rules can lead to penalties of up to 10% of a company’s global annual turnover, or up to 20% for repeated offenses, along with other potential remedies.
Apple is already under investigation for its business practices in the EU.
The European Union comprises 27 member states and has a population of 448.4 million.
Cointelegraph reached out to the Apple press department and Sainz for further confirmation and information but did not receive an immediate response.
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Digital asset manager 3iQ has filed for a Solana exchange-traded product (ETP) listing on Canada’s Toronto Stock Exchange (TSE), which, if approved, would be a first in North America, according to the company.
“We have submitted a preliminary prospectus for The Solana Fund (QSOL) in Canada in relation to an initial public offering,” 3iQ announced on X on June 20.
If approved, it would be the first Solana ETP listed in North America, the firm emphasized.
The preliminary prospectus for QSOL has been filed with securities regulatory authorities in all Canadian provinces and territories, excluding Quebec, 3iQ stated.
QSOL aims to provide “exposure to the digital currency SOL” and track the “daily price movements of the U.S. dollar price SOL.”
Additionally, holders of 3iQ’s Solana ETP might earn interest from native SOL staking yields, which the firm estimates to be around 6-8%.
Coinbase Custody and Tetra Trust will serve as custodians, with Coinbase Custody providing exclusive institutional staking infrastructure for the Solana fund.
3iQ’s key cryptocurrency products on the TSE include the 3iQ Bitcoin ETF (BTCQ) and 3iQ Ether Staking ETF (ETHQ), which have approximately $233 million and $38.7 million in net assets, respectively, according to Yahoo Finance data.
The firm also offers The Bitcoin Fund (QBTC) and The Ether Fund (QETH).
Canadian securities regulators approved the world’s first spot Bitcoin ETFs, which launched in February 2021, followed by spot Ether products two months later.
“Canada had spot Bitcoin and spot Ethereum ETFs before the US even got futures ETFs for either asset,” noted Bloomberg ETF analyst James Seyffart.
While firms like Franklin Templeton and other U.S. asset managers have praised the Solana network, none have announced plans to pursue a spot Solana ETF in the U.S.
Globally, more than $1 billion worth of Solana ETPs are already available, including the 21Shares Solana Staking ETP and the ETC Group Physical Solana product in Europe, as highlighted by Seyffart.
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