Today Bitcoin and ether slide more than 4% as economic and geopolitical Pressures Loom binance us adds a former New York fed official to its board and Okx just launched a layer two with the Help of polygon we talked to okx is Haider Rafi about the roll Out welcome to cnbc's crypto world I'm Talia Kaplan the crypto Market under Pressure as treasury yields are on the Rise and geopolitical tensions remain High by noon Eastern Bitcoin tumbled to The $61,000 level for the first time Since early March ether took a nearly 5% Hit trading just above $3,000 and Polygon's madic tokens slumped more than 5% okay let's talk about the top stories Binance us just added a former New York Fed official to its board of directors Martin Grant served at the bank for more Than 30 years including 17 years as the Chief compliance and ethics officer Currently he works at jst digital a Financial services firm that specializes In digital assets as its Global head of Regulatory Affairs and integrity now Binance us says Grant will help oversee Financial reporting processes and Internal controls Grant joins the board In the midst of regulatory headwinds for Both binance us and its parent company Back in November the international arm Of the business and its founder Shen Ping xia settled with us officials over
Anti-money laundering violations last Crypto exchange okx is new layer 2 Blockchain just launched on its public Main net X layer is a ZK powered layer 2 Built with polygon's chain development Kit a set of open-source software tools To help developers build their own Chains on ethereum according to polygon The new L2 means no cross-chain bridging Is required for users and there will now Be a broader pool of onchain liquidity On top of that Developers for the okx Community will have a better experience Building daps now this comes as other Major crypto exchanges like coinbase Have pursued their own layer 2 networks In recent months according to coin Market cap okx is the fourth largest Crypto exchange following binance Coinbase and buybit all right sticking With okx for our main story I spoke with The crypto exchanges Chief marketing Officer Haida rafik about X layer and The upcoming having which is just days Away big announcement from okx today With the crypto exchange launching its New layer 2 blockchain now of course You're not alone as other crypto Exchanges have pursued their own layer 2 Networks with coinbase launching its Base blockchain in August but why was it Important for okx to take this step and Why do you think other exchanges are Also taking action in this regard uh it
All starts with the consumer Behavior if You uh look at the onchain activity now It's about 11 times more than what it Was three years ago we are one of the Largest venues in the world for crypto And for us we feel a a duty an Obligation to the industry to streamline Things and I think one of the ways we've Been streamlining things uh is creating More interoperability between different Networks layer ones and layer twos but I Think one step below that is US Introducing our own Layer Two which Helps accelerate more developers coming In and building daps on chain but also It makes it cheaper for end users for Consumers to interact with onchain Activity without breaking their bank so Our our fees our mission is to really Make sure that the fees remain really Low comparatively to the other l1s out There in the Market now Switching gears the widely Anticipated Bitcoin having is just days Away and the key technical event reduces The number of new Bitcoin entering the Network each day which means tighter Supply now historically the having has Set the stage for bitcoin's next Bull Cycle this time around we saw a rally Leading up to the having with things Like the launch of spot Bitcoin ETFs in The US in the mix what do you expect Will happen to bitcoin's price following
The having will we see a rally like we Did following past havs well if if I Think there are two ways to look at this One is we bet on the historicals if we Bet on the historicals then uh that that Segment of people would anticipate later At the end of this year or maybe going Into 2025 we actually see the real Bull Run um you know post having the other School of thought is maybe the price is Already baked in and there's a lot of Increasing institutional demand if you Look at the Bitcoin holding now there's More institutions holding it than retail There's not a lot of Supply to go around So what happens as the ETFs continue to Grab more market share bringing more Consumers in I think it will disrupt the Way people have historically thought About Bitcoin having and price run-ups It's really hard to predict but it's Going to be really interesting to watch It discussed price obviously but how do You think the having will impact the Industry as a whole I just worked on a Report on the implications on Miners and Many say they expect consolidation post Having somewhere between 15 and 30% do You see that happening and what else are You expecting following the having I Think it's going to be a really Challenging landscape for miners I do Expect there's going to be some level of Consolidation that happens but look as
Long as the price goes back up there Profitability will come back on track so I think that's what they're really Betting on all miners which is that you Know even if there is a slight pullback Long run if there's a uh substantial Increase in price their profits go up And they're able to uh sustain their Costs of Operations um you know in addition to That I think I'm really personally Watching uh how the ETFs get built up I Know there was this recent announcement In Hong Kong where there was approval For Bitcoin and ethereum ETFs I think That's going to continue to bring more Demand into the ecosystem the challenge Is for Bitcoin at least there's not a Lot of Supply left to go around which I Think could create a supply shock and Perhaps uh another runup later on down The Road what does the having mean for okx If anything it doesn't mean mean much For us look our industry tends to be Very procyclical if you look at the Having schedule uh a lot of the demand Comes in around this time and then it Sort of neutralizes so for us what it Really means is making sure our systems Are robust they're working properly our Trading systems our matching systems our Overall web3 technology is seamless I Think that's the big role that we play
As the second largest venue in the World let's focus on prices for a second Bitcoin dropped to the $61,000 level as Of noon and over the weekend tumbled due To Rising tensions in the Middle East Now this comes just one month after Bitcoin hit a new all-time high above $73,000 so how do you explain what's Going on with prices right now what have You noticed on your crypto exchange have You been seeing a lot of selling Pressure recently and if so what do you Attribute that to I I think when the Price dropped I tweeted something you Know just very instinctively uh Something like Bitcoin is the only asset That prices the world in real time time I think the markets were closed uh but We were able to see what would happen to The markets when they would open on Monday at least on the traditional side Of things so I think Bitcoin can play a Really important role in the realtime Signal uh as it relates to World Politics or any big event uh that Happens now on our platform the demand Is somewhat stable it's not that we're Coming into this week and the the demand Have started to soften down uh prices Were high last week they were uh Crawling back up above 70,000 we saw More Traders uh getting into the Marketplace uh but generally speaking we Have a flat Market coming into this week
Now we're hearing a lot about this Grog Narrative around the utility and real World applications being built on top of Crypto what are you paying attention to Right now in that regard what has caught Your attention uh so we do have an Investment arm called okx Ventures and They recently published a report uh About the trends that we're at least Paying attention to so recently we Invested in five companies we think There's a potential for AI and crypto to See a very significant convergence in The coming years but for that Convergence to happen that fun Fundamental foundational layer needs to Be developed a lot of the infrastructure Needs to be developed so the five Investments we have made recently are All infrastructure data place with the Hope that we can be a significant Contributor in building up that Foundation so developers can come in and Really take advant AG of the Accelerating AI development along with Cryptonomics okay that's all for crypto World today we'll be back again tomorrow And we'll see you then
