 Bitcoin dropped below the $20,000 mark over the weekend as the crypto sell-off period continues. The popular cryptocurrency declined by 12% to less than $18,100 on Saturday afternoon, its first time that low since Nov. 2020. More: - Bitcoin's drop comes as investors continue to dump riskier investments.
- The sell-off is prompted by the Federal Reserve raising interest rates to combat inflation.
- Bitcoin is down 70% from its all-time high of $69,000.
- Ethereum also fell, trading at the $900 mark on Saturday. The overall crypto market has dropped from $3T to below $1T.
- The crypto meltdown has also accelerated calls for a regulatory framework, while the crypto industry has poured $20M into congressional races this year.
- Bipartisan legislation was also introduced in the U.S. Senate to regulate digital assets in an effort to protect investors.
- Cesare Fracassi, a finance professor at the University of Texas at Austin, says that the Bitcoin's drop under the psychological threshold is not a big deal, but recent news from lending platforms is cause for concern.
- Celsius Networks and Babel Finance, among others, have paused withdrawals with no word on when customers will get access to their money back.
- When asked the cause of the decline in the crypto industry, Fracassi responded by saying, "There is a lot of turbulence in the market ... And the reason why prices are going down is that there is a lot of concern the sector is overleveraged."
Zoom out: - Bitcoin eventually bottomed out at $17,772 late Saturday, but rose by 15% over 24 hours to climb back over the $20,000 mark.
- Ethereum went as low as $898 on Saturday but saw some recovery in 24 hours to $1,130 on Sunday.
- Moving back above the $20,000 and $1,000 marks would appear to have at least temporarily staved off a wave of forced liquidations that would cause a feedback loop and send Bitcoin to as low as $13,800.
- Prices below $20,000 and $1,000 could prompt large-scale investors to close their positions on BTC and ETH derivative products because the prices are too low for there to be sufficient collateral.
- Doing so would make the price drop more, which would make more investors sell, which would make the price drop even more, and so on.
ABC News 
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 "Mr. Wonderful" Kevin O'Leary is buying the crypto dip, including Bitcoin, Ether, and Web3 projects. He remains bullish on Web3-based projects, but because of how much crypto has fallen, digital assets only make up 16% of his portfolio, down from 20% six months ago. More: - O'Leary says: "I'm not selling anything ... Long term, you just have to stomach it. You have to understand you'll get volatility and that some projects aren't going to work."
- He holds 32 positions in the digital asset space, including his investment in Solana and Polygon.
- Mr. Wonderful also backed WonderFi, a crypto-trading platform listed on the Toronto Stock Exchange.
- He believes that the current rough conditions will actually make things better in the future.
- Citing the Terra and Luna token crash, he says that investors will proceed with caution: "Luna raised 30-plus billion [dollars]...No one's going to use their idea again. [The collapse] educated everybody that this isn't the way to build a stablecoin. It's important for the education and the maturation of the market."
Markets Insider
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Terralabs CEO Do Kwon faces another class-action lawsuit, this one filed in U.S. District Court in Northern California on Friday, June 17. The lawsuit alleges that Terra tokens were sold as "unregistered securities." The suit also names Jump Crypto and Three Arrows Capital. More: - Terraform Labs was launched in 2018, raised $32M, and in 2019 the ICO yielded $62M. The UST and LUNA token collapsed last month and lost their peg to the dollar, losing billions of dollars in value.
- Despite the collapse, Terra's community approved the launch of Terra 2.0, including launching a new LUNA token.
- The new LUNA token was trading at $2.01 on Monday afternoon, which was down from its high of $18.87. The old one, now called Luna Classic, is currently hovering around the $.00005 at the time of writing.
- On Monday morning, the Seoul Southern District Prosecutor's Office also imposed a travel ban on team members. Kwon's passport may also be invalidated ahead of the investigation, and reports indicate that Kwon is currently residing in Singapore.
- Terra developer Daniel Hong wrote on Twitter, "Stop asking me why I couldn't make it to NYC frens; this is why: the Korean government imposed an exit ban for all ex-terra_money employees today."
- Exchanges in Korea have introduced a new system that will integrate regulatory compliance practices to avoid Terra's fate.
- Developers at Terraform labs expressed disappointment claiming that they are being treated as criminals, which they said is "unacceptable."
Coin Republic
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 Dogecoin jumped 8% after Elon Musk tweeted that he would "keep supporting Dogecoin." Tesla had also announced that it will be accepting Dogecoin to purchase merchandise. More: - Since April 2019, Musk has been an optimistic supporter of Dogecoin, and in May 2021, Dogecoin developers were in close contact with Elon about the changes that he wants to implement in its code.
- Dogecoin rose 6.3% early hours of Monday and dropped to 5.7 cents shortly after.
- SNX rose by 85% in 24 hours. Synthetix has a trading volume of over $200M.
- Both futures tracking for DOGE and SNX generated $11M in losses during the high sell-off period.
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ProShares, an exchange-traded fund (ETF) provider, announced an ETF that will give investors an opportunity to short Bitcoin. More: - The ProShares Short Bitcoin Strategy ETF will start trading under BITI on the New York Stock Exchange on Tuesday.
- The recent crypto meltdown caused Bitcoin to drop in value from over $69,000 to $20,000 at the time of writing.
- Investors have the opportunity to profit if the price of Bitcoin drops ProShares CEO Michael L. said, "As recent times have shown, Bitcoin can drop in value."
- BITI will allow investors to profit or hedge their crypto holdings by obtaining short exposure to Bitcoin through an ETF.
- Bitcoin ETFs track the price of the popular cryptocurrency, and BITI will deliver the inverse of the performance of the S&P CME Bitcoin Futures Index.
Decrypt
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The percentage of stablecoins in the market hit an all-time high, pointing to an upcoming crypto upside period. According to JPMorgan analysts, Shares of stablecoins rose 14%, a new historical high since 2020. More: - Interest in stablecoins has been high despite the recent crypto market crash; the percentage of stablecoins circulating in the crypto market has been on the rise reaching historic levels since mid-June.
- JPMorgan Chase said: "The share of stablecoins in total crypto market cap looks excessively high, pointing to oversold conditions and significant upside for crypto markets from here."
- In April, the shares for stablecoins dropped from 10% to 7%; meanwhile, the value of stablecoins remains at $155B with a market cap of $946B. Stablecoins in the cryptomarkets amount to 17% at the time of writing, which indicates a crypto upside, according to analysts.
- Shares in stablecoins rose above 14%, pointing to oversold conditions and a significant upside for the crypto market.
- Despite the crypto market crash, JPMorgan analysts continue to have a bullish stance on Bitcoin for its long-term future, which could potentially increase to $150,000.
Coin Telegraph
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 |  | Gia Mattu is based in Calgary, Alberta. She is an entrepreneur with experience in climate technology, drones, AI, machine learning, and blockchain technology. When she's not working, she loves to hike the Canadian Rockies, try new cuisine, and travel. | | | | Editor | Aaron Crutchfield is based in the high desert of California. Over the last two decades, he has spent time writing and editing at various local newspapers and defense contractors in California. When he's not working, he can often be found looking at the latest memes with his kids or working on his 1962 Ford. | |
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