Welcome to the latest edition of Cointelegraph’s decentralized finance newsletter. As the DeFi space continues its technical resurgence, essential news on funding, innovation and DAOs continues to drive adoption in what remains a nascent industry. For the full version of this newsletter including longer, more descriptive analysis of the top stories this week, subscribe below: Alchemy raises $200M in latest funding, ACH token soars 77% Web3 platform Alchemy announced the launch of a $200-million Series C funding round this week, giving the company a decacorn status and a valuation of $10.2 billion. The seven-investor round was led by two California-based venture firms — Lightspeed Venture Partners, which were investors in FTX’s recent tertiary funding round, and Silver Lake — with add...
What is Avalanche Network (AVAX)? Launched in 2020 by Ava Labs, Avalanche is a blockchain platform that is smart contract-capable. Avalanche aims to deliver a scalable blockchain solution while maintaining decentralization and security, focusing on lower costs, fast transaction speeds, and eco-friendliness. Avalanche quickly became popular in the cryptocurrency space, with Avalanche TVL currently worth $8.41 billion and still rising across Avalanche decentralized applications (DApps). Avalanche is powered by its native token Avalanche (AVAX) and multiple consensus mechanisms. With Avalanche, users can create an unlimited number of customized and interoperable blockchains. To operate a blockchain on the Avalanche coin, AVAX, one must pay a subscription fee. What is Avalanche crypto used for...
Bitcoin (BTC) trended toward a $40,000 retest on Feb. 12 as BTC price action bore out analysts’ predictions. BTC/USD 1-hour candle chart (Bitstamp). Source: TradingView Trader hopes to avoid ‘ugly’ weekly close Data from Cointelegraph Markets Pro and TradingView showed BTC/USD reaching local lows of $41,741 on Bitstamp Saturday before a rebound over $42,000. An about-turn had ended the pair’s advance after U.S. CPI data hit, and calls soon emerged for a return to $40,000 or even lower to see how steely bulls’ resolve really was. For Cointelegraph contributor Michaël van de Poppe, the results were still inconclusive, but caution was definitely needed going forward on short-timeframe trades. “Bitcoin looking at the same resistance still,” he sum...
György Matolcsy, Governor of the Hungarian National Bank, has proposed a blanket ban on all cryptocurrency trading and mining operations across the European Union. Governor Matolcsy cited the recent crypto ban imposed by China in a blog post shared by the Hungarian central bank a.k.a. Magyar Nemzeti Bank (MNB) titled “Time has come to ban crypto trading and mining in the EU.” He also pointed out the Russian central bank’s proposal that calls for a blanket ban on domestic cryptocurrency trading and mining. Reciprocating the proposals for a crypto ban, Matolcsy said: “I perfectly agree with the proposal and also support the senior EU financial regulator’s point that the EU should ban the mining method used to produce most new bitcoin.” The governor strongly believes in cryptocurrency’s...
Decentralized finance (DeFi) has had a rough go so far in 2022, and data from Messari shows the top ten-ranked DeFi assets currently down between 10% to 50% since the start of the year. Top ten DeFi tokens by market capitalization. Source: Messari A positive is, the situation may change soon as funds have began to flow back into the DeFi ecosystem following a month of declines as data shows institutional and retail funds returning to crypto markets. Data from Defi Llama shows that the total value locked in all of DeFi platforms has climbed to $211.1 billion on Feb. 11, up from a low of $185.14 billion on Jan. 31 Total value locked in DeFi. Source: Defi Llama A closer look at the individual protocols that contribute to the total TVL shows that the biggest drawdowns in TVL over the past 30 d...
Decentralized finance (DeFi) has had a rough go so far in 2022, and data from Messari shows the top ten-ranked DeFi assets currently down between 10% to 50% since the start of the year. Top ten DeFi tokens by market capitalization. Source: Messari A positive is, the situation may change soon as funds have began to flow back into the DeFi ecosystem following a month of declines as data shows institutional and retail funds returning to crypto markets. Data from Defi Llama shows that the total value locked in all of DeFi platforms has climbed to $211.1 billion on Feb. 11, up from a low of $185.14 billion on Jan. 31 Total value locked in DeFi. Source: Defi Llama A closer look at the individual protocols that contribute to the total TVL shows that the biggest drawdowns in TVL over the past 30 d...
In her monthly Expert Take column, Selva Ozelli, an international tax attorney and CPA, covers the intersection between emerging technologies and sustainability, and provides the latest developments around taxes, AML/CFT regulations and legal issues affecting crypto and blockchain. At the end of 2021 — a year in which Bitcoin (BTC) and Ether (ETH) rose 100% and 300%, respectively — global crypto rating company Coincub ranked Singapore as the most crypto-friendly country in the world due to its “robust economy, positive legislative environment, and high rate of cryptocurrency adoption.” Cryptocurrency consumer protection law Singapore’s regulators have done a great deal to nurture the blockchain industry. Its No. 1 ranking by Coincub was proven right by the prompt regulatory measures implem...
In her monthly Expert Take column, Selva Ozelli, an international tax attorney and CPA, covers the intersection between emerging technologies and sustainability, and provides the latest developments around taxes, AML/CFT regulations and legal issues affecting crypto and blockchain. At the end of 2021 — a year in which Bitcoin (BTC) and Ether (ETH) rose 100% and 300%, respectively — global crypto rating company Coincub ranked Singapore as the most crypto-friendly country in the world due to its “robust economy, positive legislative environment, and high rate of cryptocurrency adoption.” Cryptocurrency consumer protection law Singapore’s regulators have done a great deal to nurture the blockchain industry. Its No. 1 ranking by Coincub was proven right by the prompt regulatory measures implem...
The price action for Bitcoin (BTC) continues to tantalize investors and once again, concerns over the state of the global economy and rising inflation have prompted warnings that the Fed’s upcoming interest rate hikes could do more damage then good to the state of the market. Data from Cointelegraph Markets Pro and TradingView shows that the price of BTC has hovered near the $43,000 support level in trading on Feb. 11 after rallying 20% from the $37,000 leve over the past week. BTC/USDT 1-day chart. Source: TradingView Here’s a look at what analysts expect next for BTC and the wider cryptocurrency market. “Expecting a move to $40,000” Insight into the bullish and bearish scenarios related to Bitcoin price was offered by crypto trader and pseudonymous Twitter analyst ‘Crypto_Ed_NL’, w...
The price action for Bitcoin (BTC) continues to tantalize investors and once again, concerns over the state of the global economy and rising inflation have prompted warnings that the Fed’s upcoming interest rate hikes could do more damage then good to the state of the market. Data from Cointelegraph Markets Pro and TradingView shows that the price of BTC has hovered near the $43,000 support level in trading on Feb. 11 after rallying 20% from the $37,000 leve over the past week. BTC/USDT 1-day chart. Source: TradingView Here’s a look at what analysts expect next for BTC and the wider cryptocurrency market. “Expecting a move to $40,000” Insight into the bullish and bearish scenarios related to Bitcoin price was offered by crypto trader and pseudonymous Twitter analyst ‘Crypto_Ed_NL’, w...
In 2021, crypto has been one of the biggest trends shaping tech and finance, and according to mainstream news headlines, decentralized autonomous organizations (DAOs) are set to be a force to be reckoned with in crypto in 2022. Mark Cuban called them the “ultimate combination of capitalism and progressivism.” Yet, while DAOs are relatively easy to understand conceptually, they’re a segment of the crypto market in a state of rapid flux, with many innovative use cases emerging. However, setting up and running a DAO also comes with its own set of unique challenges, which are also changing and developing over time. What is a DAO? The purest definition of a DAO is inherent in the name. An organization is a group of people and entities with a common goal or idea. It’s decentralized, so the...