The South African cryptocurrency platform, VALR, has secured two new licenses from the Financial Sector Conduct Authority (FSCA) in line with the updated rules for crypto exchanges in the nation. These licenses, referred to as crypto asset service provider (CASP) licenses, were issued to VALR following its successful acquisition of $55 million in equity funding from benefactors including Pantera Capital and Coinbase Ventures. VALR is now among the pioneering cryptocurrency businesses in South Africa to possess both Category I and II CASP licenses. Farzam Ehsani, VALR’s CEO, communicated the firm’s dedication to adherence and security, while also congratulating the regulators for creating a supportive regulatory environment for the cryptocurrency sector that simultaneously guards investors. In June 2023, the FSCA began accepting license applications, thereby providing crypto asset service providers a six-month period to comply with South Africa’s regulations.

The cryptocurrency exchange OKX has added two well-known meme coins, WIF/USD (Dogwifhat) and MEW/USD (Cat in a Dog’s World), to its list of offerings. This decision was made as more people are becoming interested in meme coins, causing them to have market values in the billions. OKX users can now deposit and trade WIF and MEW tokens using Tether stablecoin. On April 15, trading for these tokens began and withdrawals became available on April 16.

Both WIF and MEW have seen significant growth in the past few months. WIF, which launched in November 2023, now has a market capitalization of nearly $5 billion, making it one of the top 50 cryptocurrencies. It currently ranks number 42 and is the third-largest meme coin, following only Dogecoin. MEW, on the other hand, was launched on March 26 and aims to compete with other dog-themed meme coins such as DOGE and Shiba Inu.

As of right now, WIF is trading at around $3, showing a 9% increase in the last 24 hours. MEW is currently trading at $0.0052, exhibiting an 87% jump from the previous day.

With the addition of WIF and MEW, OKX now offers about 20 meme coins on their platform. The growing popularity of these coins raises concerns about their long-term sustainability and role in the cryptocurrency world. These topics will likely be discussed at Benzinga’s upcoming Future of Digital Assets conference on November 19.

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The value of Bitcoin decreased from its peak of approximately $70,500 last week to a low of $62,800, attributed to investors taking profits in anticipation of the upcoming halving and concerns about the broader economy. This decline in Bitcoin’s price also caused a downturn in the overall market, with significant drops of up to 18% seen in major cryptocurrencies.

In the last 24 hours, there has been a rise in the value of meme coins and tokens connected to artificial intelligence, surpassing the gains of more well-known tokens such as bitcoin. However, these major tokens, including bitcoin, have begun to recover from their losses over the weekend and are now trading around $66,600. This rebound is said to be linked to rumors that certain companies have received approval to offer exchange-traded funds for bitcoin and ether in Hong Kong. The overall market decline was largely due to investors taking profits before the halving of bitcoin and concerns about the larger economic situation, resulting in the liquidation of over $2 billion in futures and a drop in open positions.

On the other hand, tokens for layer-1 blockchains like ether, Solana’s SOL, and Avalanche’s AVAX have had relatively low gains, averaging only 5.5%. The CoinDesk 20 index, which excludes stablecoins, has risen about 6%. On-chain analysis from Lookonchain shows that “whales” or big investors have purchased large quantities of meme tokens like “cat in a dogs world” (MEW) and “slerf” (SLERF), causing their prices to jump almost 80% in the past day. There doesn’t seem to be any specific cause for this sudden increase.

Meanwhile, the market has been negatively impacted by investors taking profits before the halving, which is expected to take place later this week, as well as concerns about the economy since Friday. Bitcoin fell from its recent high of around $70,500 to as low as $62,800, leading to a market-wide decline with major tokens losing up to 18% of their value. As a result, over $2 billion in futures were liquidated over the weekend, the highest amount since March. Data from Coinalyze shows that a majority of these positions were betting on the price of bitcoin going up.

This drop in value has also caused a decrease of $13 billion in open positions since Friday, implying that investors are closing their bets. Some traders had predicted this drop in price in anticipation of the halving, a highly-anticipated event happening on April 20 that will cut rewards for network miners in half. Matteo Greco, a research analyst at Fineqia International, has noted that while previous halving events have typically been followed by an overall upward trend, they have also led to short-term price fluctuations before and after the event. This current negative sentiment is reflected in the net outflow of $85 million from Bitcoin Spot ETFs this week, indicating that investors are taking profits and being cautious following strong gains in the fourth quarter of 2023 and first quarter of 2024.

According to DEX Screener, the trading volume on decentralized exchanges (DEXs) built on Solana has exceeded $1 billion. This rise in volume can be attributed to the rising demand for meme coins within the Solana ecosystem.

The surge in Solana DEXs volume is notable because it is happening at a time when the decentralized finance (DeFi) industry is facing increased regulatory scrutiny. With the recent SEC’s Wells notice towards Uniswap, a major player in DeFi, it appears that there is a wider focus on regulating the industry.

Despite the challenges and uncertainties, meme coins such as SLERF, MEW, and WIF have emerged as major contributors to the trading activity on Solana DEXs. In the last 24 hours, SLERF alone has recorded a trading volume of $48.5 million, while MEW/SOL and WIF/SOL pairs have generated volumes of $45.7 million and $22.5 million respectively.

These meme coins have also shown impressive price performance, with MEW registering an increase of 86.75% in just 24 hours. The leading Solana DEX, Raydium, has played a significant role in facilitating this surge in volume.

The rise in meme coins coincides with an overall recovery in the cryptocurrency market following tensions between Iran and Israel. This further highlights the potential of meme coins, despite their reputation for being highly volatile and risky investments.

A recent report by CoinGecko has also identified meme coins as the most profitable crypto narrative in the first quarter of 2024. Even Vitalik Buterin, the co-founder of Ethereum, has acknowledged the positive applications of meme coins. This growing interest in meme coins adds to the overall trend.

In conclusion, Solana-based DEXs have witnessed a significant increase in trading volume, thanks to the popularity of meme coins. Despite the challenges posed by regulations and market volatility, these meme coins have shown strong performance and potential for profitability.