March 2, 2023

Bitcoin was trading down 2% on the day after hovering at around $24,000 on Wednesday. The world’s largest cryptocurrency by market capitalization was trading at about $23,400 at the time of writing. One analyst noted on Twitter that if bitcoin cannot hold $23,200, then it will likely test the mid-$22,000 mark before seeing any upward movement. Ether also lost ground over the last 24 hours, down 1%. Altcoins also began to drop on Thursday, with the tokens for Stacks (STX), Lido DAO (LDO) and The Graph (GRT) all down around 7%. 

Bitcoin's 24-hour price chart

Binance is making another attempt at getting a license in Singapore, but this time as a custodian, according to a report from Nikkei Asia. The exchange’s custody unit, which it rebranded as Ceffu in early February, is applying for a Capital Markets Service license from the Monetary Authority of Singapore to provide custodial services in the city-state, according to the report. Binance says the name Ceffu is a reference to SAFU (Secure Asset Fund for Users), its insurance policy. As a custodian, Ceffu would deal only with institutional investors and high-net-worth individuals, not retail customers.

IOST, the native token of the IOST Network, surged by 8.7% after the company announced that it has struck a deal to integrate with Amazon Web Services. IOST, which stands for Internet of Services Token, will look to enhance its decentralized finance, non-fungible token, GameFi and Web3 offerings by integrating with AWS' Web3, according to an announcement. The network will use AWS' artificial-intelligence tools and decentralized internet architecture, the announcement added.

Price chart for REN

REN, the native token of the Ren protocol, has climbed 18% over the past 24 hours.

The surge comes amid increasing interest in multichain projects. It also seems to reflect rising interest in the protocol, which allows users to move digital assets from one blockchain to another, generating cross-chain liquidity.

“The multichain narrative is catching investor excitement,” said Charles Storry, head of growth at crypto index provider Phuture. “Ren, with its legacy and exchange availability, has witnessed the upside of this.”

REN has increased by nearly 50% over the last two weeks, according to data from CoinGecko. Storry said he expects to see more "legacy" projects like this gain momentum in the short term.

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