Here are some of the major developments in the world of crypto over the past few days
Avalanche Continues to Promote Memecoins with a $1 Million Reward for Liquidity Providers. The Avalanche Foundation, the organization behind the smart contract blockchain platform Avalanche, is boosting memecoins with a liquidity mining incentive program to promote community-owned coins in its ecosystem. On March 21, the foundation announced Memecoin Rush, which provides Avalanche with $1 million worth of AVAX tokens as an incentive for traders.
Avalanche stated that these platforms would 'incentivize trading and add liquidity strategies' for community tokens within the network. According to the announcement, liquidity providers in the liquidity pools of the memecoins Coq, NoChill, Tech, and Kimbo will be rewarded in combination with the AVAX token. Additionally, Avalanche included Coq, Kimbo, NoChill, Gec, Tech, Husky, Meow, Kong, Meat, and Kingshit among the recipients of the incentive program vaults. While crypto community figures such as Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin have criticized memecoin traders, Avalanche appears to offer a different perspective.
Avalanche stated that memecoins represent the collective spirit and shared interests of various crypto communities. The initiative aims to position its blockchain as a network that supports new forms of creativity and culture. On January 24, Avalanche clarified that not all memecoins would receive a share of the $100 million fund. The Avalanche Foundation also stated that the project should be at least a month old. In this crowdfunding model, investors send Solana (SOL) tokens to a wallet address in the hope of receiving a weighted distribution of the tokens once they go live. However, there is no guarantee that investors will receive the tokens in exchange for their SOL.
Bitcoin demand in Argentina reached its highest level in almost two years in March 2023, hitting $0.0012 today, according to ARS. Argentines' efforts to preserve their savings amid the continued decline of their national currency, the Argentine Peso (ARS), have recently seen the country's highest demand for Bitcoin BTC in 20 months at $64,573.
On March 20, Bloomberg reported data from cryptocurrency exchange Lemon Cash revealing nearly 35,000 customers in Argentina purchased Bitcoin in the week ending March 10. An important factor in the increase in demand is the current decline in the national currency. Over the past twelve months, the ARS has quadrupled in value against the US dollar, rising from $0.0049 per ARS in March 2023 to $0.0012 at the time of this publication. However, it was noted that Lemon was not the only platform to see a surge in demand. Other major exchanges in Argentina such as Ripio and Belo reported similar trends.
According to Manuel Beaudroi, CEO of Belo Digital Wallet, stablecoin purchases in Argentina fell from 70% to 60% as the recent rise in Bitcoin price attracted more interest. “The user decides to buy Bitcoin when he sees the news that the currency is rising, while the stablecoin is more pragmatic and is often used for transaction purposes, as a vehicle for payments abroad.” In December 2023, Diana Mondino, Minister of Foreign Affairs, International Trade, and Religion, announced that a decree on economic reform and deregulation would allow the use of Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies in the country under certain conditions.
Cathie Wood's ARK Invest continues to benefit from its holdings in Coinbase as shares reach multi-year highs. ARK Invest, one of 10 issuers of Bitcoin BTC spot exchange-traded funds (ETFs) in the United States, is taking profits on its Coinbase reserves as the share price rises above $270. On March 21, ARK sold 199,526 Coinbase shares from its ETFs. The investment firm founded by Cathie Wood sold 133,533 shares of the ARK Innovation ETF (ARKK) worth about $35 million based on Coinbase's closing price of $262 on March 21, according to TradingView data.
ARK also offloaded an additional 59,215 shares of the ARK Next Generation Internet ETF (ARKW) and 6,778 shares of the ARK Fintech Innovation ETF (ARKF). Coinbase shares briefly topped $276 on March 21, according to TradingView. ARK's recent Coinbase sale is one of the largest sales of 2024 so far. The previous major sale occurred on March 11, when ARK sold 270,365 Coinbase shares. On February 16, ARK conducted its largest Coinbase sale of 2024 to date, selling 499,149 COIN shares from its three ETFs. TradingView data shows that Coinbase shares traded 37% below the current price on the day, or around $190.
ARK has also been actively selling shares of Block, a Bitcoin-focused fintech company founded by Jack Dorsey, co-founder of Twitter. On March 21, ARK sold another 188,519 Block shares from its ARKK fund, earning $15.8 million. In addition, ARK sold 93,002 Robinhood shares from the ARKW ETF, valued at approximately $2 million, as the Robinhood stock fund's holdings represented nearly 5% of the total portfolio weight to comply with Rule 12d3-1. ARK has been selling Robinhood stock under Rule 12d3-1 for some time. The company also dumped 583,563 Robinhood shares from the ARKK fund on March 14 without citing compliance with Rule 12d3-1.