Crypto

Ether (ETH) has been facing a bearish regression channel since Sept. 1, although it is currently battling to break its resistance. But despite some headwinds, ETH bulls will likely profit $115 million on Oct. 8’s weekly Ether options expiry. The 21% pump over the past week was just enough to make the entire $250 million worth of neutral-to-bearish put options worthless. Ether price in USD at Coinbase. Source: TradingView Regulatory fear limits the upside Understandably, negative headlines about increasing regulatory scrutiny toward crypto may have subdued prices last month, particularly as China banned all cryptocurrency activity outright.  Major crypto exchanges, including Binance and Huobi, halted most of their services in mainland China, and a couple of the lar...

Switzerland-based technology company Velas has allocated $100 million to startups building on top of the Velas blockchain, marking a sizable increase from its initial pledge of $5 million earlier this year.  The grants program is designed to support the growth of the Velas ecosystem and expand its capabilities within Web 3.0, a broad umbrella term that describes the next stage in the internet’s evolution. Like the initial $5 million grants program announced in August, the new funding initiative will allocate up to $100,000 per project. While Velas intends to fund a wide range of projects, developers who are creating solutions for DeFi, decentralized exchanges, nonfungible tokens and gaming will be given priority. To apply for the grant, startups must include a business plan, pitch dec...

The United States Securities and Exchange Commission, or SEC, has approved the Volt Crypto Industry Revolution and Tech ETF, providing investors with easy access to companies with significant exposure to Bitcoin (BTC). The exchange-traded fund, which was approved on Tuesday, is intended to track so-called “Bitcoin Industry Revolution Companies,” which are defined as entities that hold a majority of their net assets in BTC or derive a majority of their earnings from Bitcoin mining, lending or transacting, according to an SEC filing. Eighty percent of the fund’s holdings will be allocated to such companies, the prospectus states. The new ETF will appear as a New York Stock Exchange Arca listing under the ticker symbol BTCR. U.S. securities regulators have been deliberating for years wh...

Tether (USDT), the largest stablecoin issuer by market capitalization, has refuted the details of a Bloomberg story on its reserves holdings. In a Thursday report, Bloomberg journalist Zeke Faux made numerous claims against Tether, including that its chief financial officer Giancarlo Devasini has used the company’s reserves to make investments, that seem to contradict Tether’s public position that the holdings were fully backed at all times. In addition, Faux alleges that Tether has invested in Chinese firms and issued crypto-backed loans “worth billions of dollars.” According to the report, he was only able to confirm one bank in the Bahamas was working directly with Tether. “Tether still hasn’t disclosed where it’s keeping its money,” said Faux. “If Devasini is taking enough risk to earn...

Terra’s (LUNA) three-month rally saw its token rise by 674%, catapulting LUNA to the ranks of potential so-called “Ethereum killers.” LUNA has been on a tear lately because Terra’s most recent upgrade, Columbus-5, has effectively overhauled its tokenomics and brought significant changes to its technology. LUNA currently sits in fourth place in total value locked (TVL) among other blockchains, indicating its growing popularity for decentralized finance (DeFi) applications and also underpins its long-term viability. Terra is a layer-one blockchain developed by South Korean startup firm Terraform Labs and was released in January 2018. It has a payments-focused ecosystem powered by algorithmic stablecoins and aims to be the infrastructure for all the apps being built by Terraform Labs and the ...

Bitcoin (BTC) took a trip below $54,000 during Oct. 7 as traders waited to see how far a retracement of Wednesday’s $5,000 gains could go. BTC/USD 1-hour candle chart (Bitstamp). Source: TradingView BTC flirts with $1-trillion asset support Data from Cointelegraph Markets Pro and TradingView showed BTC/USD looking decidedly less confident Thursday, down 3% while taking aim at $53,000 — and its $1-trillion market capitalization — before recovering. The pair had hit local highs of $55,800 — its best since before the May miner rout — but it did not take long for over-optimistic markets to show signs of fatigue. With volatility still in evidence, analysts were taking the opportunity to zoom out from spot price action once more. “Historically, BTC tends to enjoy an average positive monthly...

Bitcoin (BTC) derivatives traders on the Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME) missed out on incredible profits as BTC’s spot price smashed through $55,000 this week. Retail investors reduced their long exposure across the Bitcoin futures and options markets in late September, according to data shared by Ecoinometrics. The amount of open short positions also climbed, indicating that derivative traders anticipated Bitcoin’s price to drop, as shown in the chart below. CME Bitcoin derivatives — retail traders. Source: CFTC “Commitments of Traders” report, Ecoinometrics The data was taken on Sept. 28, when BTC price had fallen below $41,000 on Coinbase — down almost 23% from its month-to-date high near $52,950. The drop surfaced in the aftermath of China’s decision to ban all kinds of crypto ...

Public.com, a neo-brokerage outfit based in New York has announced the launch of crypto trading services for its customers. In a statement issued on Thursday, Public revealed that users will be able to trade and store cryptocurrencies on the same app used for managing their stock portfolios. According to the announcement, the new crypto trading feature will be made available to users gradually over the next few weeks. As part of the crypto trading service, Public is offering support for Bitcoin (BTC), Ether (ETH), and Dogecoin (DOGE). Other cryptocurrencies offered include Cardano (ADA), Litecoin (LTC), and Bitcoin Cash (BCH). Stellar (XLM), Zcash (ZEC), Ethereum Classic (ETC), and Dash (DASH) complete the list of 10 cryptos to be offered by Public. Public’s crypto trading feature is offer...

The company is accumulating newly-mined Bitcoin instead of choosing to sell it Nasdaq-listed Bitcoin mining enterprise Riot Blockchain announced via a press release that it currently owns 3,534 bitcoins, worth about $195 million. The company revealed that it produced a majority of the Bitcoins issued this year with a total of 2,457 BTC (worth over $135 million) mined this year up to and during September.   Riot’s move to hold rather than sell Bitcoin has strengthened the argument that mining companies are seeking to accumulate the world’s number one cryptocurrency in large numbers. Riot has tripled its year-to-date Bitcoin production from 2020, marking a 246% increase in mining in 2021. It generated 406 bitcoins in September 2021, more than four times the 91 bitcoins that the company ...