On Wednesday, the implosion of the TerraUSD stablecoin kindled wide-spread panic in the crypto space. But 24 hours later, things have calmed down significantly.
Terraform Labs halted, restarted and then halted again its Terra blockchain in the wake of the collapse of TerraUSD and its related Luna token. Developers who work on the blockchain said in a tweet posted to their verified Twitter account that the second halt was intended to enable them to “come up with a plan to reconstitute” the network.
Both TerraUSD (UST), the algorithmic stablecoin that lost and never regained its 1-1 peg to the US dollar, and the associated Luna token were trading near zero at the time of the second halt.
But elsewhere in crypto sentiment had started to rebound. Tether, the largest stablecoin used in cryptocurrency markets to facilitate trading, recovered from an earlier mini-crash, soothing concerns that its troubles might spill into the broader market.
Tokens underpinning key decentralised finance protocols also advanced. Even ApeCoin rallied, advancing more than 35 per cent in 24 hours, according to CoinMarketCap.com.
Bitcoin, meanwhile, traded above $30,000 after falling to about $25,000 in the previous day’s trading. And some alternative coins also gained, with Bitcoin Cash adding 20% at one point before paring gains.
It’s a remarkably more positive picture from the havoc that overtook crypto markets on Wednesday as UST entered a “death spiral”. That day, Bitcoin had suffered a nearly 10 per cent drop.
“The fact that Tether is stabilising means that the margin calls that took place are fading,” said Matt Maley, chief market strategist at Miller Tabak + Co.
“Whenever you get forced selling in anything, it overshoots. People are still nervous, but the selling has abated. Investors will be nervous for a few more days, but the supply-demand equation has stabilised again.”
Market-watchers noted that Bitcoin, which typically trades in tandem with the stock market, was able to gain on Thursday even as the S&P 500 and Nasdaq 100 sunk 0.1 per cent and 0.2 per cent, respectively.
Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen, meanwhile, said Terra’s tumble showed the dangers of tokens that purport to be pegged to the US dollar, though she added that its implosion didn’t pose a threat to financial stability.
“Crypto has little economic significance. Not that many people own much of it,” said Brian Nick, chief investment strategist at Nuveen. Still, he added that the crypto market is being swayed by the same forces that are affecting equities right now.
“What gets punished when financial conditions are tightening? Anything with a high valuation and an uncertain or non-existent revenue stream,” he said by phone.
“And crypto has inarguably high valuations and no revenue stream. That’s very much of a piece with what we’re seeing in growth stocks, tech. It’s correlated but obviously it’s more volatile because the market is less liquid.”
Various trading desks reported business-as-usual conditions, with B2C2 saying it saw two-way flows into UST, and more buying in USDC. Stephane Ouellette, chief executive of FRNT Financial, said he’d received questions about Tether, with clients wondering if its dislocation provided any arbitrage opportunities.
“Last night there was a huge arb,” he said, adding that “everything at Tether and Bitfinex appears to be working as usual.”
“There’s no indication there’s anything going wrong there at all besides the market move, which is now looking like it was circumstantial,” he said.
Still, cryptocurrencies remain mired in a deep downturn. “The question, as always, is: now what?,” wrote Michael Purves, chief executive and founder of Tallbacken Capital Advisors. He expects further downside for Bitcoin and is looking at the coin potentially hitting $20,000 or $15,000.
“A move to 15K would be a move off the January levels which would be quite consistent with the last three long term momentum reversals we have seen,” he said in a note. “However, bears should be prepared for aggressive relief rallies along the way (just as they should with equities).”
Sri Lanka's T20I squad
Thisara Perera (captain), Dilshan Munaweera, Danushka Gunathilaka, Sadeera Samarawickrama, Ashan Priyanjan, Mahela Udawatte, Dasun Shanaka, Sachith Pathirana, Vikum Sanjaya, Lahiru Gamage, Seekkuge Prasanna, Vishwa Fernando, Isuru Udana, Jeffrey Vandersay and Chathuranga de Silva.
Key facilities
- Olympic-size swimming pool with a split bulkhead for multi-use configurations, including water polo and 50m/25m training lanes
- Premier League-standard football pitch
- 400m Olympic running track
- NBA-spec basketball court with auditorium
- 600-seat auditorium
- Spaces for historical and cultural exploration
- An elevated football field that doubles as a helipad
- Specialist robotics and science laboratories
- AR and VR-enabled learning centres
- Disruption Lab and Research Centre for developing entrepreneurial skills
Red flags
- Promises of high, fixed or 'guaranteed' returns.
- Unregulated structured products or complex investments often used to bypass traditional safeguards.
- Lack of clear information, vague language, no access to audited financials.
- Overseas companies targeting investors in other jurisdictions - this can make legal recovery difficult.
- Hard-selling tactics - creating urgency, offering 'exclusive' deals.
Courtesy: Carol Glynn, founder of Conscious Finance Coaching
'Cheb%20Khaled'
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Know your cyber adversaries
Cryptojacking: Compromises a device or network to mine cryptocurrencies without an organisation's knowledge.
Distributed denial-of-service: Floods systems, servers or networks with information, effectively blocking them.
Man-in-the-middle attack: Intercepts two-way communication to obtain information, spy on participants or alter the outcome.
Malware: Installs itself in a network when a user clicks on a compromised link or email attachment.
Phishing: Aims to secure personal information, such as passwords and credit card numbers.
Ransomware: Encrypts user data, denying access and demands a payment to decrypt it.
Spyware: Collects information without the user's knowledge, which is then passed on to bad actors.
Trojans: Create a backdoor into systems, which becomes a point of entry for an attack.
Viruses: Infect applications in a system and replicate themselves as they go, just like their biological counterparts.
Worms: Send copies of themselves to other users or contacts. They don't attack the system, but they overload it.
Zero-day exploit: Exploits a vulnerability in software before a fix is found.
Pharaoh's curse
British aristocrat Lord Carnarvon, who funded the expedition to find the Tutankhamun tomb, died in a Cairo hotel four months after the crypt was opened.
He had been in poor health for many years after a car crash, and a mosquito bite made worse by a shaving cut led to blood poisoning and pneumonia.
Reports at the time said Lord Carnarvon suffered from “pain as the inflammation affected the nasal passages and eyes”.
Decades later, scientists contended he had died of aspergillosis after inhaling spores of the fungus aspergillus in the tomb, which can lie dormant for months. The fact several others who entered were also found dead withiin a short time led to the myth of the curse.
Conflict, drought, famine
Estimates of the number of deaths caused by the famine range from 400,000 to 1 million, according to a document prepared for the UK House of Lords in 2024.
It has been claimed that the policies of the Ethiopian government, which took control after deposing Emperor Haile Selassie in a military-led revolution in 1974, contributed to the scale of the famine.
Dr Miriam Bradley, senior lecturer in humanitarian studies at the University of Manchester, has argued that, by the early 1980s, “several government policies combined to cause, rather than prevent, a famine which lasted from 1983 to 1985. Mengistu’s government imposed Stalinist-model agricultural policies involving forced collectivisation and villagisation [relocation of communities into planned villages].
The West became aware of the catastrophe through a series of BBC News reports by journalist Michael Buerk in October 1984 describing a “biblical famine” and containing graphic images of thousands of people, including children, facing starvation.
Band Aid
Bob Geldof, singer with the Irish rock group The Boomtown Rats, formed Band Aid in response to the horrific images shown in the news broadcasts.
With Midge Ure of the band Ultravox, he wrote the hit charity single Do They Know it’s Christmas in December 1984, featuring a string of high-profile musicians.
Following the single’s success, the idea to stage a rock concert evolved.
Live Aid was a series of simultaneous concerts that took place at Wembley Stadium in London, John F Kennedy Stadium in Philadelphia, the US, and at various other venues across the world.
The combined event was broadcast to an estimated worldwide audience of 1.5 billion.
HIJRA
Starring: Lamar Faden, Khairiah Nathmy, Nawaf Al-Dhufairy
Director: Shahad Ameen
Rating: 3/5
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7pm: Abu Dhabi Equestrian Gold Cup - Prestige (PA) Dh125,000 (T) 1,600m, Winner: Hameem, Adrie de Vries, Abdallah Al Hammadi
7.30pm: Al Ruwais – Group 3 (PA) Dh300,000 (T) 1,200m, Winner: AF Alwajel, Tadhg O’Shea, Ernst Oertel
8pm: Maiden (TB) Dh80,000 (T) 1,400m, Winner: Nibras Passion, Bernardo Pinheiro, Ismail Mohammed
Jetour T1 specs
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COMPANY PROFILE
Name: Akeed
Based: Muscat
Launch year: 2018
Number of employees: 40
Sector: Online food delivery
Funding: Raised $3.2m since inception
What can victims do?
Always use only regulated platforms
Stop all transactions and communication on suspicion
Save all evidence (screenshots, chat logs, transaction IDs)
Report to local authorities
Warn others to prevent further harm
Courtesy: Crystal Intelligence
