Ethereum’s highly anticipated Shanghai upgrade is one step closer to being activated on the network’s mainnet, following a final dress rehearsal that was carried out on the Goerli testnet, which involved a simulation of staked Ether (ETH) withdrawals.

The U.S. government has requested that Binance.US’s $1 billion deal to buy the assets of bankrupt cryptocurrency lender, Voyager Digital, be put on hold due to legal objections, as per a filing submitted on Tuesday

Over $2.2 billion worth of USD Coin (USDC) was burnt since the start of this week as redemptions crossed $4 billion on Tuesday night, causing waves in the world of cryptocurrency.

 Top stories in the Crypto Roundup today:

• Staked ETH Withdrawals Simulated on Final Testnet
• US Government Says Voyager-Binance.US Deal Should be Halted
• $2.2 Billion in USDC Were Burnt in a Single Day
• Exchange Liquidity Witnesses Sharp Fall for USDC Pairs

Staked ETH Withdrawals Simulated on Final Testnet

Ethereum’s highly anticipated Shanghai upgrade is one step closer to being activated on the network’s mainnet, following a final dress rehearsal that was carried out on the Goerli testnet, which involved a simulation of staked Ether (ETH) withdrawals.

Once activated, the upgrade will complete Ethereum's full transition to a proof-of-stake (PoS) network, allowing validators to withdraw their staked ether and rewards earned from adding or approving blocks.

The test revealed a low validator participation rate, attributed to nodes not being upgraded on time for the Goerli fork.

Ethereum developers will confirm the mainnet activation date in their upcoming biweekly meeting on Thursday, March 16, with a tentative target set for the beginning of April.

US Government Says Voyager-Binance.US Deal Should be Halted

The U.S. government has requested that Binance.US’s $1 billion deal to buy the assets of bankrupt cryptocurrency lender, Voyager Digital,be put on hold due to legal objections, as per a filing submitted on Tuesday.

The U.S. Trustee, a branch of the Department of Justice responsible for bankruptcy cases, has raised concerns that the deal could absolve Voyager and its staff from breaching tax or securities laws.

In a filing on Tuesday, U.S. Attorney Damian Williams argued that the approval of the deal should be delayed until higher courts can rule on the appeal. Williams stated that the court could not allow parties to be exculpated from liability to the government for past and future conduct, and that nothing in the Bankruptcy Code permits such an action.

Last week, New York bankruptcy judge Michael Wiles approved the deal, despite the Securities and Exchange Commission’s concerns that Voyager’s VGX token may be an unregistered security.

$2.2 Billion in USDC Were Burnt in a Single Day

Over $2.2 billion worth of USD Coin (USDC) was burnt since the start of this week as redemptions crossed $4 billion on Tuesday night, causing waves in the cryptocurrency sector.

The redemptions come days after Circle’s USDC stablecoin depegged from the $1 mark when Silicon Valley Bank (SVB), where $3.3 billion of the stablecoin’s reserves were being held, collapsed. The stablecoin restored its peg after regulators stepped in and ensured depositors would be made whole.

According to Arkham Intelligence data, some 723 million USDC were burnt in a single transaction in early Asian hours on Wednesday. The data also shows several other USDC burns took place over multiple separate transactions, ranging from $300 million to $600 million.

This brought the total burnt value of USDC to over $2.2 billion in a little over a single day. Burns refer to effectively taking tokens out of circulating supply by sending them to an address that’s not controlled by any entity. The USDC token burns could have possibly occurred  as a result of redemption activity.

Net redemptions of USDC crossed the $4 billion mark on Tuesday, as issuer Circle said over the weekend it would process all transactions and honor redemptions.

Exchange Liquidity Witnesses Sharp Fall for USDC Pairs

Amidst the recent turmoil in the cryptocurrency market, one major concern that arose was the lack of liquidity for USDC pairs on centralized exchanges. Since USDC was not listed on Binance, one of the largest and most liquid exchanges in the industry, traders had to rely on other less-liquid exchanges that are more susceptible to price volatility.

This resulted in a sharp decline in liquidity for USDC pairs on these exchanges. For instance, Coinbase's BTC-USD liquidity, which serves as a unified market for USD and USDC on Coinbase, experienced a significant drop in its 1% market depth.

This decline was even more severe than when FTX collapsed. Specifically, the 1% market depth fell from 846 BTC on the 10th to 417 BTC on the 11th, representing a 50.7% decline.

Dive deeper into the USDC depeg and its impact on the cryptocurrency market via CryptoCompre’s latest Market Spotlight.

State of the Crypto by Top Tier Exchange Volume

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