Popular meme token Dogecoin (DOGE) rose as much as 5% on Monday after Twitter owner Elon Musk announced the rebranding of the popular social media platform to ‘X’. Meanwhile, Bitcoin (BTC) dropped below $29,100, continuing its move to the downside from last week.
Musk, who purchased Twitter for $44 billion last year, was always vocal about his plans to rebrand the company and turn it into a super app similar to WeChat in China. Twitter is currently in the process of changing its name to X and becoming a part of the billionaire’s artificial intelligence-focused conglomerate X.AI.
To celebrate the occasion, CEO Linda Yaccarino shared a tweet showing the new logo projected onto the San Francisco headquarters of X Corp.
Twitter Rebrand Boosts DOGE
Interestingly, Elon added the ticker logo of DOGE to his Twitter bio on Monday, spinning speculation that the cryptocurrency might have a bigger role to play in the company’s resurgence.
This also added fuel to rumors that Dogecoin is set to become the official tipping currency on X and the centerpiece of the micro-blogging platform’s financial ecosystem.
If things go according to the Tesla and SpaceX CEO’s plans, X will merge several services like instant messaging, financial research tools, educational and news content, and social hubs, which normally require consumers to use separate apps into a mega platform that will employ artificial intelligence to learn and predict user behavior.
DOGE hit a daily high of $0.077 as soon as Twitter announced its rebrand. On Monday, the pop-culture icon of a cryptocurrency widely promoted by the world’s richest man enjoyed subsequent gains of over 6%. At the time of writing, Dogecoin is trading at $0.076 – up 4.2% in the last 24 hours.
Bitcoin Suffering From Summer Woes
Meanwhile, Bitcoin (BTC), the world’s most-traded cryptocurrency, dipped below $29,100. Data showed that 96% of all leveraged futures positions or $30 million worth of longs were liquidated in under an hour, which analysts say may have contributed to the sudden decline in token prices.
Alex Kuptsikevich, a senior market analyst at online brokerage firm FxPro, said the lack of bullish news and a generally quiet summer may lead to Bitcoin dropping ever further. Alex predicts the next significant support level for BTC to be $27,000 “if bearish pressure intensifies”.
A similar sentiment was shared by Simon Peters, a market analyst at crypto and stock trading platform eToro, who said the cryptocurrency was “beating a slow retreat” as the price continues to downtrend from the recent high.
He explained that despite the summer market dynamic having the tendency for high volatility with lower trading flows if there is anything to suggest, the recent period has shown that the crypto markets have remained “remarkably calm”.
SEC’s Actions Against Binance May Lead To Further Lows
Another reason for the slump might be a revelation by Binance CEO Changpeng “CZ” Zhao. In a private conversation, the Binance chief suggested that the crypto exchange’s affiliates had wash traded $70,000 worth of Bitcoin (BTC) when Binance U.S. debuted in 2019. The affiliates are accused of artificially inflating transaction volumes by trading the assets among themselves.
Binance U.S. and CZ are currently being investigated by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) for violating federal securities law.
The financial watchdog, which banned wash trading in the traditional market back in 1936, is accusing Sigma Trade, another company headed by Chanpeng Zhao, to have manipulated trading volumes on Binance U.S.
Representatives of the world’s largest crypto exchange dismissed the SEC’s allegations as unfounded and claimed the company employs a Market surveillance team that monitors and reviews “potentially abusive or manipulative behavior” such as wash trading or trade price manipulation.
Market experts say that any regulatory action against Binance could affect the market and tend to weigh on crypto prices.
At the time of writing, Bitcoin (BTC) is trading at $29,186 – down 1.9% in the last 24 hours.
