Crypto

FTX, one of the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchanges, continues expanding operations by inking major regulatory approval in The Bahamas. The Securities Commission of The Bahamas has registered FTX Digital Markets, the Bahamian subsidiary of the global FTX crypto exchange, as an official digital asset business, the firm announced Sept. 20. The regulatory approval is granted under the Digital Asset Registered Bill of The Bahamas, the country’s new digital asset-related legislation that came into force in late 2020. Also known as the DARE Act, the legislation establishes a comprehensive regulatory framework for digital asset operations in The Bahamas, regulating and supervising virtual asset service providers. The regulatory approval will help FTX establish a “substantial presence” in The...

Coinbase has grabbed the attention of regulators in recent weeks, but it has also received its largest contract to date from the government Coinbase, one of the leading crypto exchanges in the world, has signed a contract worth $1.36 million with the United States Department of Homeland Security (DHS). The contract is the biggest the crypto exchange has received from the federal government so far. The crypto exchange is set to supply a Coinbase Analytics licence to the Immigration and Customs Enforcement department of the DHS. The contract became effective on 16 September, and Coinbase is set to receive an initial $445,000 from the government. However, the contract could last up to three years, and Coinbase could earn up to roughly $1.36 million. This latest development is the second contr...

Leading U.S. cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase has secured a contract to develop tech for the Department of Homeland Security worth as much as $1.36 million. Under the agreement, Coinbase has been contracted to deliver “application development software as a service” for the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement division (ICE). The contract took effect on Sept. 16 and will see Coinbase receive $455,000 from the department. However, the contract could be extended to last for up to three years in total, which would see Coinbase receive up to roughly $1.36 million. The deal is the second partnership inked between Coinbase and ICE, with the exchange having secured a $30,000 contract to provide “computer forensics services” to the agency in August. The news has received backlash from the crypt...

Cross-chain DeFi platform pNetwork has become the latest protocol to be targeted by hackers on Binance Smart Chain, reporting a loss of roughly $12.7 million worth of Bitcoin.  According to a Twitter thread published by pNetwork on Sept. 20, the incursion resulted in 277 pBTC being siphoned from the exchange. The hackers made off with the majority of the network’s collateral, pNetwork added. 1/N We’re sorry to inform the community that an attacker was able to leverage a bug in our codebase and attack pBTC on BSC, stealing 277 BTC (most of its collateral). The other bridges were not affected. All other funds in the pNetwork are safe. — pNetwork (@pNetworkDeFi) September 19, 2021 The team noted the attack was executed by exploiting a bug in its codebase, adding that a fix is alrea...

According to a blog post published by Optimism on Sept. 18, the team anticipates Ethereum-native protocols will be able to launch on its network in a single click by the end of October. “Any tooling that can run on Ethereum will run identically on Optimistic Ethereum,” the post highlighted, adding: Optimism, the Ethereum Foundation-backed team building developing a layer-two roll-up network, has announced upgrades to its protocol that will enable developers to deploy on its network in just “one-click.” “Anyone who has written code targeting Geth can now deploy without change — even for advanced features like traces and gas.” The post asserts that Optimism overhauled its code in a bid to extend beyond Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM) compatibility to achieve “EVM equivalence” through shrinkin...

Bitcoin (BTC) starts a new week with a decidedly bearish move — but one which fails to shake investor confidence in the bull run. A mixed weekend saw BTC/USD close above $47,000, only to lose all of its previous gains to challenge $45,000 support hours later. It’s a delicate situation — not just Bitcoin, but stocks and sentiment are taking a beating as the Evergrande implosion in China unravels. What could affect the cryptocurrency market?  As analysts expect a “choppy” week for BTC price action, Cointelegraph takes a look at five factors worth considering when charting where Bitcoin might be headed in the short term. El Salvador “buys the dip” Bitcoin spot price action is hardly inspiring for traders as the week begins. A reversal of previous strength on...

Bitcoin (BTC) has the potential to push its prices to between $250,000 and $350,000 by the end of 2021, a long-standing fractal suggests. First spotted by pseudonymous analyst Bit Harington, the bullish setup drew its inspirations from Bitcoin’s secular bull runs every time after halvings when the miner block reward gets cut in half. Analysts perceive the halving as a bullish event, which reduced the supply of newly mined BTC.  Harington reminded that Bitcoin’s prices surged by more than 600% after the first two halving events in 2012 and 2016 when measured from a so-called resistance/support (R/S) line, as shown in the chart below. Bitcoin price performance after the first two halving events. Source: BuyBitcoinWorldWide, PlanB, and Bit Harington The line represe...

Bitcoin (BTC) and most major altcoins have been consolidating in the past few days as investors await a trigger to start the next directional move. Some believe that the rising inflation in the U.S. could prove to be bullish for Bitcoin. In a note to clients, Anthony “Pomp” Pompliano said that the only way to protect oneself in the current environment is to invest either in “equities, real estate, crypto, etc.” Crypto market data daily view. Source: Coin360 Bitcoin’s market dominance recovered from about 40.66% on Sept. 12 to 43.75% on Sept. 18, indicating that traders may be booking profits in altcoins and buying Bitcoin. The outcome of the two-day FOMC meeting next week could act as a trigger to determine the next directional move in Bitcoin. Let’s study the charts of the top...

One of the reasons behind Bitcoin’s (BTC) volatility, the substantial price oscillations that occur regularly, is the discrepancy of its use cases. Some pundits deem it “digital gold,” a truly scarce and perfect store of value (SoV). Others consider Bitcoin a technology project or a type of software with a corresponding network. El Salvador’s adoption as legal tender will likely evidence the means of exchange (MoE) functionality that the Lightning Network provides. The Layer-2 scaling solution allows instant and insanely cheap transfers, although it requires regular on-chain transactions to enter or exit this parallel network. As these narratives about Bitcoin shift over time, so does BTC’s correlation to traditional assets. For example, there have been sustai...

The term “Ethereum killer” is beginning to pick up the pace once again in the cryptocurrency markets as the native tokens of several competing blockchain networks are posting significant gains during September. For any alternative network to be considered as a part of this category, it needs to have one essential feature that serves as the backbone of the Ethereum network: smart contracts. Keeping this in mind, the most prominent blockchain networks by market capitalization that usually come under this purview are Cardano (ADA), Solana (SOL), Binance Smart Chain (BSC), Polkadot (DOT), and Terra(LUNA). The native tokens of these networks have been on an absolute tear this year. Most recently, Solana (SOL) has been in the spotlight after the bulls carrying its rally continued even in the fac...