Crypto News
Sui Mainnet Launches, PEPE Coin Goes Viral, DAME Tax Proposal, and Opensea Insider Trading Trial
Sui Mainnet
The highly anticipated Sui blockchain network, developed by former Facebook engineers who worked on the Novi project, officially launched on the mainnet Wednesday morning. Sui is a layer-1 blockchain with a unique move-based design that aims to solve some of the problems with Ethereum.
Mysten Labs, the development company behind the blockchain, raised an impressive $300 million in a Series B funding round in September 2022. During testing, the blockchain demonstrated its ability to achieve high throughputs, ranging from 10,000 to 297,000 TPS.
As more high-performance blockchains emerge, Sui is poised to make significant headway in the market. The SUI token, used for governance purposes and fees, has been listed on major centralized exchanges such as Bybit, Binance, OKX, and Kucoin.
Pepe
The recently launched PEPE coin has skyrocketed into the top 75 cryptocurrencies just two weeks after its launch. With a market cap of $700 million, this ERC-20 token has 420.69 tokens in circulation and rapidly rises in the meme coin rankings. PEPE now holds the third position, trailing only Shiba Inu ($5.8 billion market cap) and Dogecoin ($10.9 billion market cap).
PEPE's price surge is further propelled by its listing on several prominent cryptocurrency exchanges, including Gate.io, OKX, and MEXC. There are crazy speculations regarding potential listings on tier 1 exchanges such as Coinbase, Kucoin, and Binance.
Meme coins have recently gained popularity as fun or joke tokens, typically lacking real-world utility. Investors often seek quick profits from these coins, though caution is advised. It's essential to invest only what you can afford to lose.
As for my personal experience, I invested in PEPE coin and secured my initial investment to ensure I wouldn't incur any losses. I'm letting the remainder ride, hoping to reach heights similar to Shiba or Doge. Always remember the wise words of an experienced trader: "You'll never go broke taking profits."
The President has unveiled the new budget for the fiscal year of 2024, which features a notable proposal: the introduction of the Digital Asset Mining Energy (DAME) excise tax. Under this innovative taxation scheme, firms engaged in crypto mining must pay a tax equivalent to 30% of their electricity costs. Crypto mining, a process that validates transactions among holders of digital assets, involves using advanced computing equipment to perform complex calculations that determine validators. The primary goal of the DAME tax is to encourage miners to consider the societal and environmental impacts of their operations, promoting greater accountability within the industry.
Opensea
In a landmark insider-trading trial involving NFTs, Nathaniel Chastain, the former Opensea manager, has been found guilty of wire fraud and money laundering. The charges against Chastain alleged that he exploited confidential information to earn substantial profits by purchasing NFTs just before their listing on the Opensea homepage, which resulted in an immediate spike in their value. Once the prices had risen significantly, Chastain would sell the NFTs for a profit. The government claimed that Chastain pocketed over $57,000 in gains from these transactions.
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Not Financial Advice
Please note that all opinions in my newsletter are strictly my own and should not be considered financial advice. It is important to conduct your own research and make your own investment decisions. Always consult a qualified financial advisor before making any investment decisions.