Crypto
Wazupnaija – Naija Entertainment blogs & Forums – Business – Crypto
Crypto VC funding hits $30.3B in H1, Michael Saylor steps down as MicroStrategy CEO, and Voyager to return $270M worth of customer assets: Hodler’s Digest, July 31-Aug 6
Coming every Saturday, Hodler’s Digest will help you track every single important news story that happened this week. The best (and worst) quotes, adoption and regulation highlights, leading coins, predictions and much more — a week on Cointelegraph in one link. Top Stories This Week Crypto fundraising hits $30.3B in H1, outpacing all of 2021: Report A report from crypto analytics firm Messari on Tuesday showed that the crypto sector has raised $30.3 billion in funding this year, already outpacing the total for all of 2021, which was $30.2 billion. The figure was achieved via 1,199 funding rounds in the first half of the year, with $10.3 billion, more than a third of the capital, going towards the centralized finance sector. Notably, the NFT gaming sector raised more than all of decentrali...
Ethereum price rises by 50% against Bitcoin in one month — but there’s a catch
Ether (ETH), Ethereum’s native toke, has been continuing its uptrend against Bitcoin (BTC) as euphoria around its upcoming network upgrade, “the Merge,” grows. ETH at multi-month highs against BTC On the daily chart, ETH/BTC surged to an intraday high of 0.075 on Aug. 6, following a 1.5% upside move. Meanwhile, the pair’s gains came as a part of a broader rebound trend that started a month ago at 0.049, amounting to approximately 50% gains. ETH/BTC daily price chart. Source: TradingView The ETH/BTC recovery in part has surfaced due to the Merge, which will have Ethereum switch from proof-of-work (PoW) mining to proof-of-stake (PoS). Ethereum’s “rising wedge” suggests sell-off From a technical perspective, Ether stares at potential interim loss...
What is a decentralized money market and how does it work?
The seamless flow of capital between borrowers and lenders is a key aspect of a vibrant economy. Anyone with an extra asset can lend it to put their idle capital to work, while people needing it to grow business or meet operational costs can easily access it. Money markets are the platforms where borrowers and lenders can meet. Throughout history, money markets have been generators of economic activities. Though the structure of money markets has altered with time, their role has remained unchanged. How does the money market work? Conventionally, money markets were centralized structures facilitating the deals between lenders and borrowers. Borrowers would approach money markets to get a short-term loan (under a year) that might be collateralized. If the borrowers can’t pay back their loan...
Proof-of-work: The Bitcoin artists on minting NFTs and OpenSea
“Art is not a thing, it is a way,” said American writer Elbert Hubbard. For Bitcoin (BTC) artists, the way is inspired by Bitcoin, its code, its philosophy and its imagery. In some cases, it’s even inspired by memes. Bitcoin has become a “lifestyle,” for some Bitcoin artists, that inspires their way of doing business, accepting payments and interacting with customers. Cointelegraph asked Bitcoin artists what inspires them about Satoshi Nakamoto’s 13-year-old invention and whether minting a nonfungible token (NFT) would complement their “way” of doing art. After all, an NFT is a unique, digital receipt to prove ownership of a purchase that lives on a blockchain. Surely artists would want to prove ownership of the art at which they toiled away? Lena poses with one of her art pieces. So...
Bitcoin price: weekend volatility ‘expected’ with $22K level to hold
Bitcoin (BTC) rose above $23,000 again into Aug. 6 as new analysis predicted a potential surge of 20% or more. BTC/USD 1-hour candle chart (Bitstamp). Source: TradingView Daily chart gives trader $30,000 target Data from Cointelegraph Markets Pro and TradingView showed BTC/USD climbing overnight to once again sit near the top of its established trading range. After multiple attempts to break out above range resistance at $23,500, the pair appeared still stuck in limbo at the time of writing, but hopes of bullish continuation were already there. “Expecting more volatility over the wknd,” on-chain monitoring resource Material Indicators wrote in part of its latest Twitter update on Aug. 5. “If the Bear Market Rally can push BTC above 25k there isn’t much friction to 26k – 28k ran...
Price analysis 8/5: BTC, ETH, BNB, XRP, ADA, SOL, DOGE, DOT, MATIC, AVAX
The United States Labor market added 528,000 jobs in July, much better than the 258,000 estimate. Wages saw growth of 5.2% year-over-year and 0.5% over the month. This suggests that inflation remains high and the U.S. Federal Reserve may continue with its rate hikes in the near future. After staying in close correlation with the U.S. equities markets for the past several months, the crypto space could be ready to chalk out a new course. Bloomberg Intelligence senior commodity strategist Mike McGlone and senior market structure analyst Jamie Coutts said in a recent report that Bitcoin (BTC) has started base building similar to the one seen near $5,000 in 2018–2019. They expect the recovery to decouple from stocks and behave more like U.S. “Treasury bonds or gold.” Daily cryptocu...
Indian authorities freeze $8.1M in WazirX funds as part of AML investigation
India’s Directorate of Enforcement, or ED, has announced it froze roughly $8.1 million in funds and conducted a search connected to cryptocurrency exchange WazirX as part of an investigation into instant personal loan fraud. In a Friday announcement, the Directorate of Enforcement alleged WazirX facilitated transactions by unnamed fintech firms “to purchase crypto assets and then launder them abroad” as part of a scheme involving Chinese-backed companies circumventing India’s licensing regulations. In its investigation, the ED said it ordered WazirX bank accounts containing 646.7 million Indian rupees — roughly $8.1 million at the time of publication — frozen and conducted a search connected to co-founder Sameer Mhatre. According to the regulator, the investigation was still ongoing. Howev...
2 metrics signal the $1.1T crypto market cap resistance will hold
Cryptocurrencies have failed to break the $1.1 trillion market capitalization resistance, which has been holding strong for the past 54 days. The two leading coins held back the market as Bitcoin (BTC) lost 2.5% and Ether (ETH) retraced 1% over the past seven days, but a handful of altcoins presented a robust rally. Crypto markets’ aggregate capitalization declined 1% to $1.07 trillion between July 29 and Aug. 5. The market was negatively impacted by reports on Aug. 4 that the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) is investigating every U.S. crypto exchange after the regulator charged a former Coinbase employee with insider trading. Total crypto market cap, USD billions. Source: TradingView While the two leading cryptoassets were unable to print weekly gains, traders’ appetite...
What will cryptocurrency look like in 2027? Here are 5 predictions
The year is 2027. It’s a time of great innovation and technological advancement, but also a time of chaos. What will the crypto market look like in 2027? (For those unfamiliar, that’s a line from the 2011 video game, Deus Ex.) Long-term predictions are notoriously difficult to make, but they are good thought experiments. One year is too short a period for fundamental changes, but five years is just enough for everything to change. Here are the most unexpected and outrageous events that could happen over the next five years. 1. The metaverse will not rise The metaverse is a hot topic, but most people do not have even the slightest idea of what it actually comprises. The metaverse is a holistic virtual world that exists on an ongoing basis (without pauses or resets)...
Crypto Biz: Gucci ‘apes’ into crypto
What comes to mind when you think of Gucci? Designer handbags, fashion jewelry, elegant Swiss watches? What about payment integration with an ERC-20 governance and utility token that wants to power Web3? Rolls off the tongue, doesn’t it? The iconic Italian fashion brand announced this week it would expand its payment options to include the Bored Ape Yacht Club-affiliated ApeCoin (APE) — but only through BitPay. In other words, Gucci will let you liquidate your APE for United States dollars and spend the proceeds at its stores. If you’re surprised by the news, you should read on to learn more about Gucci’s broadening crypto ambitions. While you’re at it, stick around for this week’s Crypto Biz, where we dissect the latest news surrounding Michael Saylor and Robinhood. We leave you wit...
Voyager plans to resume cash withdrawals on Aug. 11
Crypto lender Voyager Digital Holdings has reported users may be able to make cash withdrawals from the app more than a month after suspending trading, deposits, withdrawals and loyalty rewards. In a Friday blog post, Voyager said clients with U.S. dollars in their accounts could withdraw up to $100,000 in a 24-hour period starting as early as Aug. 11, with the funds received in 5–10 business days. The announcement followed a judge ruling on Thursday the crypto lending firm was cleared to return $270 million in customer funds held at the Metropolitan Commercial Bank in New York. “Requests will be processed as quickly as possible but will require some manual review, including fraud reviews and account reconciliation, and timing will depend, in part, upon the individual banks to which custom...
Finance Redefined: Solana and Nomad bridge fall prey to exploits losing millions
Welcome to Finance Redefined, your weekly dose of essential decentralized finance (DeFi) insights — a newsletter crafted to bring you significant developments over the last week. This past week, the DeFi ecosystem saw two exploits, one after another, resulting in the loss of millions of dollars. First, cross-bridge token platform Nomad became a victim of what many deemed a decentralized robbery, which saw almost $190 million drained out of their wallets. Solana ecosystem became the victim of a widespread unknown attack that saw thousands of wallets getting drained out of all the funds. Apart from a series of exploits, Nansen admitted their negligence toward the DeFi market during the NFT boom. The top-100 DeFi tokens had a mixed price action over the past week, with many seeing a downturn ...
