Crypto
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Bitcoin bear market over, metric hints as BTC exchange balances hit 4-year low
Bitcoin (BTC) may already be beginning its new macro uptrend if historical “hodl” habits repeat. That was the conclusion from research into the latest data covering the amount of the BTC supply dormant for one year or more as of July 2022. Hodled BTC hints that the bear market is over According to independent analyst Miles Johal, who uploaded the findings to social media on July 29, a “rounded top” formation in “hodled” BTC is in the process of completing. Once it does, the price should react — just like on multiple occasions before. The clue lies in Bitcoin’s HODL Waves metric, which breaks down the supply according to when each Bitcoin last moved. One year ago or more — the one-year HODL Wave — currently reflects the majority of the supply. Johal’s accompanying ch...
Ticketmaster scouts productization of enterprise NFTs beyond ticketing
A new job posting by America’s biggest ticketing company, Ticketmaster, reveals mainstream interest in exploring new revenue streams using nonfungible tokens (NFTs). Over the past two years, artists, musicians and the sports industry helped thrust the NFT ecosystem into the limelight as the technology served its purpose as a powerful fan engagement tool. Conversely, most of the general public boarded the hype train seeking profits via reselling collectibles in the secondary markets. With the NFT hype eventually slowing down by mid-2022, entrepreneurs and companies are looking for new use cases beyond collectibles. A study conducted by Big 4 accounting firm Deloitte in May 2022 highlighted the untapped potential of the crypto ecosystem to open up newer markets for the sports industry:...
Hong Kong university to inaugurate mixed reality classroom in Metaverse
The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (HKUST) announced to host the launch party of a virtual reality classroom over the Metaverse on September 1. The launch marks the commencement of HKUST’s plan to promote immersive learning by building a virtual campus in the Metaverse, to be called MetaHKUST. An academic from the HKUST institution told South China Morning Post that the launch of the mixed reality classroom represents the opening of a new campus in the city of Guangzhou, Hong Kong. Pan Hui, chair professor of computational media and arts at the Guangzhou campus, added that: “A lot of guests might be overseas and can’t attend [the opening], so we will host it in the metaverse.” By building MetaHKUST, the institution plans to create a learning environment that virtually conne...
Ethereum will outpace Visa with zkEVM Rollups, says Polygon co-founder
zkEVM Rollups, a new scaling solution for Ethereum, will allow the smart contract protocol to outpace Visa in terms of transaction throughput, said Polygon co-founder Mihailo Bjelic in a recent interview with Cointelegraph. Polygon recently claimed to be the first to implement a zkEVM scaling solution, which aims at reducing Ethereum’s transaction costs and improving its throughput. This layer-2 protocol can bundle together several transactions and then relay them to the Ethereum network as a single transaction. The solution, according to Bjelic, represents the Holy Grail of Web3 as it offers security, scalability and full compatibility with Ethereum, which means developers won’t have to learn a new programing language to work with it. “When you launch a scaling solution,...
KuCoin crypto exchange debuts USDT-dominated NFT ETF
Seychelles-headquartered cryptocurrency exchange KuCoin has launched an exchange-traded fund (ETF) tied to major nonfungible token (NFT) assets like Bored Ape Yacht Club (BAYC). KuCoin’s NFT ETF Trading Zone went live on Friday, the firm announced. The new investment product is launched in collaboration with NFT infrastructure provider Fracton Protocol. The KuCoin NFT ETF is a Tether (USDT)-dominated product that marks particular underlying NFT assets like Bored Ape Yacht Club. BAYC is one of five NFT ETFs that KuCoin is launching. Trading under the symbol hiBAYC, the asset is an ERC-20 token representing 1/1,000,000 ownership of the target BAYC in the BAYC meta-swap of Fracton Protocol. The ETF aims to increase liquidity as it enables exposure to NFTs via the USDT stablecoin instead of Et...
Pro-Russian groups raised only 4% of crypto donations sent to Ukraine
According to data from crypto analytics firm Chainalysis, users have sent more than $2 million in crypto to 54 pro-Russian groups since Feb. 24, a fraction of that received by many wallets controlled by the Ukrainian government. In a Friday blog post, Chainalysis said it had tracked funds sent to social media accounts controlled by pro-Russian groups in Bitcoin (BTC), Ether (ETH), Litecoin (LTC), USDT-TRX, and Dogecoin (DOGE) starting with the country’s invasion of Ukraine in February. According to Chainalysis’ data, users sent roughly $2.2 million to the pro-Russian groups, with more than $1 million going to a single unnamed account. While there may be other groups outside of Chainalysis’ investigation of those supporting pro-Russian forces, the available data suggested that the $2.2 mill...
Crypto pumps after Fed rate hike, Zuckerberg pins hopes on Metaverse making hundreds of billions and Tesla posts $64M BTC gain: Hodler’s Digest, July 24-30
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 ‘Bullish rate hike’ — Why crypto spiked in the face of bad news Despite the U.S. Federal Reserve announcing a 75-basis-point interest rate hike on Wednesday, the crypto markets pumped significantly on the same day with the momentum continuing through the week. Quantum Economics founder and CEO Mati Greenspan jokingly called it a “bullish rate hike” and stated that investors were clearly expecting far worse. Analysts such as Swyftx’s Pav Hundal suggested the recent rally may be due to an easing of inflationary ...
Argentinean soccer club welcomes first crypto signing amid economic downturn
Argentina’s economic restrictions have reached the sports industry, with the first signing of a local football player with cryptocurrencies hitting national headlines. The transfer of midfielder Giuliano Galoppo from Banfield’s Athletic Club to Sao Paulo Futebol Clube was made in USD Coin (USDC), exceeding $6 million and up to $8 million depending on the volatile exchange rate of the Argentine peso, according to local sources. The transfer was made possible through a collaboration with the Mexican crypto exchange Bitso. “We are very proud to work with these two clubs for this historical signing of Sao Paulo with all the safety, transparency and flexibility that the crypto economy has to offer,” said Thales Freitas, Bitso’s director in Brazil. The transfer happened amid a difficult ec...
How NFTs can boost fan engagement in the sports industry
Nonfungible tokens (NFTs) have grown a lot in popularity since the release of CryptoKitties in 2017, with the sector expected to move over $800 billion in the next two years. Some of the most well-known use cases for NFTs are picture-for-proof projects such as the Bored Ape Yacht Club and play-to-earn gaming projects. NFTs have also attracted attention from the sports industry, with professional sports leagues setting up their own platforms for fans to engage with their favorite teams or players, but that will be discussed later in this story. NFTs are unique and non-interchangeable pieces of code stored on the blockchain. These strings of alpha-numerical code can be linked to assets such as artwork or digital and physical goods. NFTs are created through a process known as minting, a...
Historically accurate Bitcoin metric exits buy zone in ‘unprecedented’ 2022 bear market
Bitcoin (BTC) is enjoying what some are calling a “bear market rally” and has gained 20% in July, but price action is still confusing analysts. As the July monthly close approaches, the Puell Multiple has left its bottom zone, leading to hopes that the worst of the losses may be in the past. Puell Multiple attempts to cement breakout The Puell Multiple one of the best-known on-chain Bitcoin metrics. It measures the value of mined bitcoins on a given day compared to the value of those mined in the past 365 days. The resulting multiple is used to determine whether a day’s mined coins is particularly high or low relative to the year’s average. From that, miner profitability can be inferred, along with more general conclusions about how overbought or oversold the market...
Can blockchain be used without cryptocurrency?
A blockchain without cryptocurrency is a distributed ledger that stores data associated with nonfungible tokens (NFTs), supply chain initiatives, the Metaverse and more. Even though Bitcoin (BTC) is the most known application of a decentralized ledger or blockchain, there is a wide range of other uses of blockchain technology. For instance, blockchain technology can be utilized in various financial services including remittances, digital assets and online payments because it enables payments to be settled without a bank or other middleman. Furthermore, the next generation of internet interaction systems including smart contracts, reputation systems, public services, the Internet of Things (IoT) and security services are among blockchain technology’s most promising applications.&a...
Dubai permits full operation to FTX subsidiary FZE via first MVP license
On Friday, FZE, a subsidiary of crypto exchange FTX, was awarded Dubai’s first Minimal Viable Product (MVP) license, allowing full operation of the exchange in the region. Dubai’s Virtual Asset Regulatory Authority (VARA) issued the operating license to FZE under the MVP program, which according to Helal Saeed Almarri, the director general of Dubai WTC Authority, is designed for secure and sustainable growth in Dubai. For now, the FTX FZE exchange’s operations are in the test phase and will be focused on providing various crypto services. According to FTX CEO Sam Bankman-Fried, the newly licensed exchange will operate under a model incorporating regulatory oversight and Financial Action Task Force (FATF) compliance controls catering to Tier 1 international financial markets. In addit...
