Top crypto news of the week

Crypto news: what are the most important news stories of the week? What’s happening within the blockchain industry? 

Amid Ethereum fees at a two-month low, Tether‘s latest investments, and the SEC’s complaint against Binance. All the details below. 

Crypto: among the week’s top news stories is the SEC’s complaint against Binance 

The US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has filed a lawsuit against Binance, the cryptocurrency exchange, in which it alleges serious wrongdoing and legal violations. 

Specifically, the SEC claims that this should lead to a ban for the company and its high-profile CEO, Changpeng “CZ” Zhao, from conducting further business in the United States.

The SEC filed its charge in the federal court that oversaw the bankruptcy of cryptocurrency lender Voyager last March. 

According to the SEC, the staff believed that Binance was operating an unregistered exchange in the United States, but had not yet filed a formal complaint.

Moreover, the charges brought against Binance are similar to those brought against failed cryptocurrency exchange FTX and its trading firm Alameda Research. 

Indeed, the charges include commingling of corporate and client activities, misuse of client funds, and possible manipulation of the native token market. 

Finally, regulators alleged that Binance tried to attract US customers despite operating outside the country and not being registered in the United States. 

In addition, Binance allegedly had little separation between its US and offshore operations, despite legal requirements to keep them separate. 

Currently, the SEC has filed a request with the court for an order requiring a “verified” hearing of Binance and Binance.US finances. 

Not only that, the SEC has also requested the freezing and repatriation of assets, the preservation of relevant documents, and the appointment of a receiver for Binance’s assets.

Ethereum fees at two-month low 

Among the week’s most important crypto assets, as anticipated, we find bad news for Ethereum. Specifically, based on the latest data, we can see that the average daily gas fee on Ethereum‘s blockchain, which represents the flexible cost to execute transactions or smart contracts, is registering a two-month low. 

This comes after reaching high levels during last month’s memecoin frenzy. According to data from The Block, the average transaction fee on Ethereum, calculated using a seven-day moving average, has dropped to $7.34 from last month’s peak of $20. 

The last time commissions were this low was on 17 April, when the average was $6.57. Even when measured in gwei, a fraction of Ether equivalent to one billionth of the entire currency, the trend remains the same. 

In addition, according to data provided by a Dune Analytics user, the average daily gas price has dropped to 24 gwei from a peak of more than 140 gwei last month. The last time prices were this low was 12 April. But where is the explanation for this phenomenon? 

We see that since centralized exchanges usually have slower listing times for memecoins, many of which have mainly speculative or even zero value, traders have turned to decentralized exchanges, such as Uniswap, to trade coins such as Pepe and others. 

Hence, the demand for blockchain space to execute decentralized memecoin exchanges has been the main cause of the increase in transaction fees on Ethereum.

Tether invests $250 million in Volcano Energy

Tether, the stablecoin issuer, has provided financial support to a startup called Volcano Energy, which aims to build a Bitcoin mining farm in El Salvador.

According to the announcement made yesterday, Tether invested in Volcano Energy’s first round of funding. 

The first round of funding has a value of $250 million, and Tether has contributed only part of this amount, as confirmed by Paolo Ardoino, CTO of Tether. 

However, it is not yet clear whether the full $250 million in funding has been reached at this time. We do know, though, that the startup’s goal is to raise $1 billion to fund the mining operation.

Josue Lopez, a 23-year-old Bitcoin enthusiast from El Salvador, serves as CEO and leads the startup Volcano Energy. 

Max Keizer, another well-known Bitcoin advocate, is the company’s president and is part of the advisory team to El Salvador‘s President Nayib Bukele.

Bitcoin’s planned mining farm will have a capacity of 241 megawatts (MW) and will consist of 169 MW of solar photovoltaic power and 72 MW of wind power. This facility will be located in Metapan, in the municipality of El Salvador, in the department of Santa Ana. 

This energy configuration is expected to generate a computing power of more than 1.3 EH/s (exahash per second). To give an idea of the magnitude, one EH/s corresponds to one quintillion hashes per second.