Hundreds of Australian investors have lost over 160 million Australian dollars ($104 million) following the collapse of three cryptocurrency mining companies, NGS Crypto Pty Ltd, NGS Digital Pty Ltd, and NGS Group Ltd (collectively known as the “NGS companies”).
This financial debacle unfolded as these entities entered into liquidation.
The Australian Security and Investments Commission (ASIC) has initiated civil proceedings against the NGS companies and their directors, Brett Mendham, Ryan Brown, and Mark Ten Caten.
These companies are alleged to have enticed local investors to set up self-managed superannuation funds (SMSFs), which were then converted into cryptocurrency investments in blockchain mining packages promising fixed-rate returns.
ASIC claims that around 450 investors had invested approximately 62 million AUD ($40 million) with these companies, which lacked the requisite Australian financial services license.
The commission’s concerns over the possible loss of digital assets led to the Federal Court’s decision to appoint liquidators for handling the NGS companies’ digital currency holdings.
Additionally, Brett Mendham has been prohibited from leaving Australia.
The regulator has also taken steps to prevent the NGS companies from offering financial services in the country without the necessary authorization.
ASIC Chair Joe Longo emphasized the risks of investing SMSFs in cryptocurrency and affirmed the agency’s dedication to regulating crypto products to safeguard investors.
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In a related development, other Australian cryptocurrency entities such as DCA Capital, Digital Commodity Assets Pty Ltd, and the Digital Commodity Assets Fund are undergoing liquidation and face federal court proceedings due to concerns about mismanagement and regulatory non-compliance.
KordaMentha, the liquidator for these companies, has identified debts totaling 100 million AUD ($65 million) owed to 100 investors.
Furthermore, the federal court has frozen assets of DCA Capital’s director, Ashod Balanian, valued at 55 million AUD ($36 million), and he has been ordered to surrender his passport.
The increased scrutiny from ASIC in recent months reflects a broader regulatory focus.
On March 21, ASIC Commissioner Alan Kirkland pointed out the need to address the “regulatory trilemma” which includes balancing consumer protection, market integrity, and the promotion of financial innovation.
As Australia approaches a significant “inflection point” in cryptocurrency demand, the market continues to evolve.
Although local institutional demand remains subdued, the potential for growth in stablecoins and favorable policy adjustments suggest a burgeoning interest in crypto within the nation.
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Tech entrepreneur Elon Musk is currently seeking to secure up to $4 billion in funding for his new artificial intelligence (AI) startup, xAI, which developed the AI chatbot known as Grok.
To facilitate this, Musk is offering selected investors the opportunity to join funding rounds via special purpose vehicles (SPVs), as stated in a recent email circulated among potential contributors.
SPVs are investment tools that allow various investors, including venture capital firms and individual investors, to pool resources into a single entity.
Although this method provides an organized way to invest, it comes with initial fees of up to 5% in addition to management fees and interest, as reported.
Musk’s fundraising target ranges between $3 billion and $4 billion, aiming for a post-deal company valuation of $18 billion.
The email elaborated that the funds are expected to be raised “in the next 2–3 weeks on a first-come, first-served basis.”
Founded by Musk in March 2023, xAI was officially launched in July of the same year and is based in the San Francisco Bay Area.
The company’s mission is ambitiously described as “understanding the true nature of the universe.”
Its first product, the X-linked chatbot Grok, was released in November, boasting capabilities surpassing those of OpenAI’s ChatGPT, according to the firm.
In addition to Musk’s renowned success with Tesla, the email to investors highlighted the AI model’s training on data sourced from Musk’s X microblogging network as a potential selling point.
READ MORE: Bonk Cryptocurrency Faces 4% Overnight Decline Amid Market Volatility
Mario Nawfal, an entrepreneur and angel investor, has voiced his perspective on the current surge in AI investments, saying, “concerns about an AI bubble grow amid soaring valuations and high development costs.”
xAI also focuses on internal capabilities, employing AI tutors from diverse fields to generate and refine high-quality data for model training and evaluation, per information on the company’s website.
In a significant move, Musk announced in March that xAI would make its AI chatbot open-source, positioning it as a contender against the proprietary models like OpenAI’s ChatGPT.
Despite its ambitious valuation and technological advances, xAI remains relatively small, with only 10 full-time engineers and an operational range of 5,000 to 10,000 GPUs.
When Cointelegraph sought more details from xAI, the company did not provide an immediate response.
The AI chatbot market is competitive, with Grok vying against other products like OpenAI’s ChatGPT, Antropic’s Claude, Microsoft’s Copilot, Google’s Gemini, and Meta AI from the company formerly known as Facebook.
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The Shiba Inu (SHIB) cryptocurrency recently experienced significant fluctuations in its burn rate, closely aligned with changes in its market valuation.
Over the last week, there was a noticeable slowdown in the rate at which tokens were being burned, coinciding with a drop in the coin’s market price.
The volume of SHIB tokens set aside for destruction decreased substantially during this period, leading to a lower overall burn rate.
Towards the end of the current week, however, the situation dramatically reversed. The burn rate for Shiba Inu tokens sharply increased, largely due to the actions of the project’s lead developer.
According to data from Shibburn, there has been a significant increase in the number of tokens being sent to the burn address.
READ MORE: Bitcoin Slips Below $70,000 Amid ETF Outflows and Market Uncertainty, Traders Hold onto Targets
In just 24 hours, an impressive 87.76 million SHIB tokens were burned, marking an increase of 48,554.74% in the burn rate compared to previous figures.
This remarkable increase in burn activity involved transactions from just two wallets.
The wallet labeled “0xb8001c3” was responsible for burning 61.9 million tokens on Wednesday.
Following closely, the “0xa9d1e0” wallet contributed an additional 25.85 million SHIB tokens to the burn.
The sharp increase in burning activity stands in stark contrast to the previous day’s activity, where only 180,375 tokens were burned, resulting in a drastic 99.59% decrease in the burn rate.
This recent surge seems to be driven by organic factors rather than deliberate efforts by the Shiba Inu team or shifts in community sentiment.
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Book of Meme (BOME) and Pepecoin (PEPE) both delivered astronomical returns to early investors.
Kitty Queen Coin (KITQUE) has burned 40% of the 5 billion tokens that were minted, by transferring all tokens in the Raydium liquidity pool to a dead wallet.
Specifically, 2 billion KITQUE tokens were burned just around three hours after the memecoin began trading today.
This comes after Kitty Queen Coin’s price has rallied 2,024% in the last three hours, with it currently trading at $0.00002478.
Despite this impressive rally, KITQUE (contract address: F6LdtNP9zThSuCwdweAGqngC9XufhDfMYjFio3mWZT9e) currently has a market cap of just $120,000, meaning it still could easily rally another 7,000%-10,000% in the coming weeks and months.
Its market cap is forecast to hit at least $2 million by the end of April, meaning investors who buy in at the current price will generate approximately 1,600% returns within a couple of weeks.
KITQUE is one of the most exciting Solana memecoins to be released this month, and it does appear to have the potential to eventually challenge coins such as Book of Meme (BOME) and Pepecoin (PEPE).
PEPE and BOME both generated massive returns for their early investors, as they surged and became mainstream.
It remains to be seen if KITQUE will be able to achieve a market cap of $100 million or over, but it certainly has plenty of potential to achieve a $5mn-$10mn market cap, so it’s not surprising that there is huge buying pressure on the token’s first day of launch.
Kitty Queen Coin is currently only available to trade on decentralized exchanges, such as Raydium and Jupiter, but it will be listed on several centralized exchanges later this month, providing another bullish catalyst which early investors will profit from.
Many investors made millions of dollars by investing in dog-themed coins like Shiba Inu (SHIB) and Dogecoin (DOGE) while their market caps were very low.
Kitty Queen Coin (KITQUE), a cat-themed Solana memecoin that was launched on 12 April, is set to deliver explosive gains to early investors.
KITQUE, which currently trades on decentralized exchanges like Raydium and Jupiter, has a maximum supply of 5 billion tokens and it has a market cap of around $9,000.
Kitty Queen Coin is currently trading at $0.00000184, after rallying 58% in the one hour since it was launched.
Its market cap is forecast to rally another 5,500% in the next seven days and breach the $500,000 mark.
This would allow early investors to turn a few hundred dollars into around $20,000 – and there would be plenty more explosive upside potential after that, with listings on centralized exchanges set to cause KITQUE’s market cap to blow past the $2mn-$4mn range in the short term.
As for Kitty Queen Coin’s long-term prospects, its ability to reach a market cap of $50 million or more will be dependent on how many investors flock to the project and choose to hold their tokens, instead of taking profits after generating 50x-200x returns.
Many experienced memecoin investors, including those who generated huge profits by investing early on in Shiba Inu (SHIB) and Dogecoin (DOGE), are set to pour funds into Kitty Queen Coin (contract address: F6LdtNP9zThSuCwdweAGqngC9XufhDfMYjFio3mWZT9e).
This is because this newly launched memecoin has much more potential for further growth than SHIB and DOGE, as those tokens already have market caps in the billions of dollars.
However, SHIB and DOGE still have room to surge 100%-300% during the next 6-12 months, so they are still potentially more lucrative than other, more traditional investments.
The Floki Price Prediction has become a focal point in the cryptocurrency sphere as FLOKI’s market valuation reaches the impressive $2 billion mark.
This milestone has fueled discussions regarding potential large-scale investments in the token, which currently trades at $0.000210, having experienced a 2.52% increase within a single day.
This surge highlights its growing influence in the market.
FLOKI’s market position is further solidified by its substantial trading volume of $240.5 million, ranking it 57th on CoinMarketCap.
Its presence is bolstered by a circulating supply of over 9.5 trillion coins, despite the absence of a fixed total supply cap.
This significant market cap achievement prompts further speculation about FLOKI’s future direction and the nature of its investment landscape.
Regarding price forecasts, the critical pivot point for FLOKI stands at $0.00022, reflecting the market’s delicate balance.
Resistance levels at $0.00023, $0.00025, and $0.00028 suggest potential selling pressure points, while support levels at $0.00019, $0.00017, and $0.00015 indicate where buying might increase.
The Relative Strength Index (RSI) at 55 suggests a balanced market, neither overbought nor oversold, with the 50-day Exponential Moving Average (EMA) at $0.00021, highlighting the pivot point’s role in indicating short-term trends.
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FLOKI’s visibility on social media, especially on Reddit and Twitter, significantly affects its market perception.
The introduction of a new program by TokenFi developers, designed to quadruple the purchasing power per wallet, along with FLOKI’s listing on the M2 Exchange, are pivotal developments aimed at expanding its investor base.
The current trend for FLOKI is bearish below the $0.00022 mark, but breaking past this could signal a shift towards a bullish market.
Investors are advised to keep a close watch on these crucial price levels and market news to navigate the volatile cryptocurrency environment effectively.
Simultaneously, the anticipation around Sponge V2’s launch on exchanges is palpable, marking a critical juncture for investors to tap into pre-listing benefits.
From its initial price of $0.000025, Sponge V2 has seen a staggering 7840.59% increase to $0.001960.
The opportunity to earn a 167% staking reward with Sponge V2 is drawing to a close with its impending exchange listing.
The token’s phenomenal growth and the strong backing of over $21.5 million in staked and bridged funds reflect the community’s confidence in its potential. Sponge V2 integrates the Play-to-Earn gaming model with lucrative staking rewards, urging investors to stake their $SPONGE for $SPONGEV2, offering an attractive 40% introductory APY.
With the transition to V2 nearing completion, the urgency for investors to leverage Sponge V2’s promising trajectory before it becomes publicly traded is emphasized.
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Numerous dog-themed memecoins, such as Dogecoin (DOGE), Shiba Inu (SHIB), and Bonk (BONK), have risen to prominence and achieved billion dollar market caps.
Furrari (FURRARI) coin is set to become one of just a handful of cat-themed memecoins to go viral and achieve a multi-million dollar market cap.
The Solana-based coin, which was launched today and is now available to buy on decentralized exchanges, such as Jupiter, has been identified as a memecoin that has massive potential to grow in the coming months.
Furrari (contract address: 9oG3T8UMkFcjEEBQaEsU71B6Sa9grMbbP2SmKu6ed1T4) currently has a market cap of just $10,000, and it is projected to explode in the coming days and weeks, with a $1.4 million target set for the end of next week.
This would allow investors who buy in at the current price to generate a 140x return on their investment – something the large cap memecoins, such as Dogecoin (DOGE), Shiba Inu (SHIB), and Bonk (BONK), can no longer offer due to their market caps already being in the billions of dollars.
The sheer memeability of this coin – which mixes the cuteness of a cat with the luxury of the Ferrari brand – means it has the potentially to quickly go viral and target a market cap much higher than $1.4 million in the medium to long term.
Furthermore, the fact that all of Furrari’s liquidity is locked on Raydium, which prevents a rugpull, is another key attraction to the project for early investors, as they get exposure to huge upside gains, with reduced risk of a rugpull (unlike most other new memecoins.)
Another exciting, newly launched memecoin that has massive upside potential is Musk Eclipse (ECLIPSE).
This coin (contact address: D6QcGYbrpzFjVEmzARLzMC2TdFiHhWaRoieq6YMJVZf8) has already skyrocketed over 1,000% since we wrote about it less than 24 hours ago, with its market cap surging from $6,000 to around $67,000, generating huge gains for investors.
And, with Musk Eclipse looking to soon hit a $500,000 market cap before targeting further gains, it still has explosive upside potential.
Given the massive gains that new, small cap memecoins are delivering, it is not surprising that many BONK, SHIB and DOGE investors are investing their profits into such tokens, including Furrari and Musk Eclipse.
Caroline Pham, a commissioner at the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), raised concerns about potential conflicts between her agency and the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) following a recent crypto enforcement initiative.
On March 29, Pham articulated worries that the CFTC’s recent actions against KuCoin, a cryptocurrency exchange, might overlap with SEC’s regulatory domain.
The CFTC accused KuCoin of various breaches of the Commodity Exchange Act and its regulations on March 26, aligning with criminal allegations by the U.S. Justice Department.
Pham expressed apprehension that the CFTC’s strategy might encroach on SEC’s jurisdiction, potentially jeopardizing long-established investor protection laws by confusing financial instruments with financial activities.
She underscored the difference between owning shares and trading derivatives, indicating a fundamental distinction in how financial markets operate.
This situation reflects broader debates within U.S. legislative and regulatory circles regarding the oversight responsibilities of the CFTC and SEC, especially concerning cryptocurrency regulation.
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The classification of cryptocurrencies as either commodities or securities is a central theme in these discussions.
The debate has intensified, particularly around Ether, after Prometheum, a crypto company, announced its intention to offer custody services for it as a security.
The dispute over Ether’s classification is critical, as the CFTC’s complaint against KuCoin implied that Ether is a commodity.
Nonetheless, legal experts have noted that any move by the SEC to classify ETH as a security could significantly influence the CFTC’s decisions on various applications for spot Ether exchange-traded funds awaiting review.
The disagreement between the two regulatory bodies highlights the complexities of regulating emerging technologies like cryptocurrencies, as they challenge traditional regulatory frameworks and necessitate a clear delineation of oversight responsibilities.
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Musk Eclipse (ECLIPSE) is a memecoin that was launched on 9 April, and it has rallied over 500% since its launch, but it needs to surge another 700% from its current price to touch its all-time high.
Popular memecoins such as Dogecoin (DOGE) and Shiba Inu (SHIB) have been losing steam in recent weeks, but both of these tokens still have the potential to generate 200%-300% during the next bull run.
However, many investors are choosing to pour funds into small cap memecoins, as they can buy a large percentage of the supply for a relatively small amount of money.
For example, as Musk Eclipse (ECLIPSE) currently has a market cap of around $6,000, investors can buy up 5% of the supply for just around $300.
And, if the memecoin is able to achieve a multi-million dollar market cap, like many other newly launched memecoins, early investors would see their positions surge to hundreds of thousands or millions of dollars.
Musk Eclipse (ECLIPSE), which was launched on 9 April, is currently trading at $0.00000586 – up over 500% since it launched.
However, it needs to surge another 700% from its current price to touch the all-time high it reached on its first day of trading.
Investors are targeting further gains once this ATH is reached, with many investors expecting ECLIPSE’s (D6QcGYbrpzFjVEmzARLzMC2TdFiHhWaRoieq6YMJVZf8) market cap to exceed $500,000 before the end of April.
This would generate a return of over 9,000% for early investors, and there will be plenty of potential for further, explosive price growth beyond that, especially once centralized exchange listings are announced (the coin currently can only be purchased on Raydium and Jupiter.)
Dogecoin (DOGE) and Shiba Inu (SHIB) Price Prediction
After a period of consolidation, some memecoin investors remain very bullish on Doge, while others have cashed in their profits and invested in smaller cap tokens with more potential.
However, Dogecoin is still likely to rally by at least 50%-150% during the bull run, and it will most likely outperform Shiba Inu.
Although Shiba Inu has experienced strong price growth so far in 2024, there are signs that it is losing steam and will lose momentum as we go deeper into the year.
Flare, a groundbreaking blockchain designed for data, proudly introduces the Raindex desktop application, marking a significant evolution in decentralized exchange (DEX) technology. This innovative platform merges the best features of centralized exchanges (CEXs) with the benefits of decentralized finance (DeFi), offering users a unique, trustless trading experience without the need for intermediaries.
The Raindex app is designed to facilitate advanced trading operations such as setting bid and offer prices, activating stop loss and take profit mechanisms, and even emulating other traders’ strategies entirely on-chain.
At the heart of Raindex’s functionality is the Flare Time Series Oracle (FTSO), a decentralized price oracle that ensures accurate and secure asset price triggers. This technology enables the app to deliver real-time asset prices every 1-2 seconds through its “Fast Updates” feature, supported by Flare’s novel architecture. Raindex utilizes an intents-like architecture, allowing users to define desired trade outcomes without specifying the means of achieving them.
This approach not only simplifies trading but also enhances strategy deployment efficiency.
Raindex’s core is powered by Rainlang, an intuitive smart contract language that empowers users to craft, deploy, and manage custom token trading strategies with ease. Emphasizing accessibility, Rainlang is designed to be as simple as Excel formulas, broadening its appeal to a wider audience. This language supports a variety of trading strategies, including dollar-cost averaging, stop losses, and trend tracking, among others.
Josh Hardy, Co-founder of Rain, emphasizes the importance of secure, reliable data in trading strategy development, expressing enthusiasm for integrating Rainlang and Raindex into the Flare ecosystem. Similarly, Hugo Philion, Co-founder and CEO of Flare Labs, highlights the recent enhancements to the FTSO, which now supports the delivery of up to 1,000 asset prices on-chain every second, thereby enabling the extensive functionalities of a CEX within the secure framework of a DEX.
To celebrate its launch and encourage community engagement, Raindex is hosting a trading contest throughout May 2024. Participants have the chance to win from a prize pool of $12,000 by showcasing their most profitable trading strategies using Rainlang.