Crypto

While the COVID-19 pandemic decimated certain industries like tourism and retail, other entirely new industries have emerged. Two years ago, the concept of a “metaverse” was virtually unknown. Today, the term is trending everywhere online, with new companies and funds entering the space every week — billions of dollars have already been poured into this industry. Just last week, Mark Zuckerberg announced that Facebook will become a metaverse company. Meanwhile, few “metaverse” companies have any real scale or customers, which makes it easy for onlookers to dismiss it as a trend that may flame out. We would caution against that. The last time we saw a boom like this was in crypto in the mid-2010s. People who jumped on the crypto bandwagon during those early days — think Mike Novogratz, Jose...

Bitcoin (BTC) has been struggling to break the $50,000 mark for over 10 days now. However, on Sept. 2, the premium cryptocurrency briefly surpassed the milestone, sending positive ripples across the market. Since then, the token has dropped below the mark to trade in the $49,000 range before rebounding to hit the $50,000 mark yet again on Sept. 3. As Bitcoin often behaves in a cyclical pattern, a look at the monthly trends for September could reveal patterns in the price, which in turn could be helpful to gauge the outlook for the upcoming month. Historically, September has been one of the more lackluster months for BTC. A look at the monthly price data since 2013 reveals that the token has posted positive gains in September twice in eight years — in 2015 and 2016 — with a maximum of 6%, w...

Decentralized exchange aggregator 1inch has partnered with an animated series that pokes fun at startups in a Silicon Valley-like setting. In a Friday announcement, 1inch said it would be sponsoring the nonfungible token, or NFT, series Take My Muffin in addition to providing its technical expertise for the show and introducing team members to projects in the decentralized finance, or DeFi, space. The series follows the exploits of a team of creatures who attempt to get startup projects off the ground — with general wackiness and blockchain-based solutions aplenty — and is scheduled to be released in the first half of 2022. “A partnership of this kind comes as no surprise,” sai 1inch co-founder Anton Bukov. “Take My Muffin was financed by the crypto community from the very beginning. It’s ...

Welcome to the latest iteration of Cointelegraph’s decentralized finance newsletter. Just as quickly as the summer departed from our calendars, millions of funds were hacked from the wallets of Cream Finance. This has been another jam-packed week in the DeFi space. Here are some top picks for the biggest stories in what is my debut appearance as Finance Redefined’s newsletter writer. What you’re reading is the shorter, snappier version of the newsletter. For the full roundup of DeFi developments across the week delivered directly to your inbox, subscribe below. Cream of the crop This week’s cream-of-the-crop story (pun intended) was the news that lending protocol Cream Finance joined the growing list of hacker’s victims from the world of DeFi. Following diligent analysis from blockch...

Now that altcoin season is upon us again, multiple tokens are witnessing illustrious price hikes every day. In a sideways market, a key skill for a trader is the ability to anticipate when an asset will break out — and when everything is green, knowing when the rallies are coming to an end becomes equally essential. This week, CELO embarked on a flash rally that generated an almost vertical line on its price chart, but then it quickly faded without ushering in a strong second wave. Aside from keeping a steady eye on candlestick charts, was there a better way for traders to know in advance when to hop off? A new DeFi initiative fuels CELO’s price spike CELO is the native asset of the Celo blockchain ecosystem, whose main goal is to introduce the convenience of decentralized finance, or DeFi...

The bullish momentum across the cryptocurrency market continued to build on Sept. 3 as a market-wide rally lifted the prices of most altcoins and boosted Bitcoin (BTC) and Ether (ETH) above their respective resistance levels at $51,000 and $4,000. The recent price gains seen in the altcoin market show no sign of slowing down and several altcoins gained more than 30% on Friday. Top 7 coins with the highest 24-hour price change. Source: Cointelegraph Markets Pro Data from Cointelegraph Markets Pro and TradingView shows that the best performers over the past 24-hours were Polymath (POLY), Bitcoin Cash ABC (BCHA) and XYO Network. Polymath rallies as its ‘Polymesh’ mainnet launch approaches Polymath is an Ethereum-based project focused on digital asset management. Data from Cointele...

In response to a warning from South Africa’s Financial Sector Conduct Authority, major cryptocurrency exchange Binance has said it is in compliance with local regulators and is not offering financial advice or intermediary services to residents. In a Friday statement from Binance, the crypto exchange implied the warning from the Financial Sector Conduct Authority, or FSCA, lacked authority because the group does not have the power to regulate “crypto-related investments” in South Africa. The exchange also pushed back against allegations that South Africans used the Binance South Africa Telegram group to access services for the crypto exchange, saying the online community promoted blockchain education, but did not provide financial advice or services. Though the FSCA is an agency of the Sou...

Bitcoin (BTC) finally broke above the $50,500 resistance and Ether (ETH) has risen above the $4,000 mark. This suggests that there is growing interest in cryptocurrencies and several legacy finance companies are initiating steps to tap into this increasing demand. One of the world’s largest independent asset managers, Franklin Templeton, has posted fresh job applications for medium to senior-level positions in crypto trading and research, according to Linkedin job postings. Meanwhile, in Japan, financial conglomerate SBI Holdings is planning to set up one of the first crypto funds in the country by the end of November. Tomoya Asakura, the director and senior managing executive officer at SBI, said that the launch of a second fund will be explored depending on the success of the first one. ...

While regulators have often targeted projects in and out of the crypto space, the fines levied against digital asset exchanges are a fraction of those against traditional financial institutions. According to data from Good Jobs First’s violation tracker, the platform analyzed 50 of the biggest fines regulators levied against major banks, investment firms, and brokers over the last 20 years. Bank of America accrued roughly $82 billion covering 251 different fines including securities violations, while JPMorgan Chase and Citigroup were also some of the most fined banks in the U.S. since 2000 with penalties totaling $35.9 billion and $25.5 billion, respectively. While both major banks and crypto exchanges have often been penalized for securities violations, data suggest that enforcement actio...

An important part of preserving investing profits is knowing when an asset or sector is showing signs of exhaustion and when a sector rotation is underway.  This is especially important in the rapidly moving cryptocurrency markets, which can change direction in a heartbeat and turn crypto millionaires into depressed bag holders. Most investors know that the nonfungible token (NFT) sector has been on fire since July, and as CryptoPunks, Mutant Ape Yacht Club and pet EtherRock NFTs fetched six- and seven-figure sums, while top NFT marketplace OpenSea surpassed $4 billion in total sales. While the frenzy has been exciting, many new projects have launched across a variety of blockchain networks, and the recent decline in transaction volumes could be a signal that investors are looking to ...

Bitcoin (BTC) passed $50,500 later on Friday as a return to the $50,000 mark put bulls firmly back on the scene. BTC/USD 1-hour candle chart (Bitstamp). Source: TradingView Bitcoin lines up a $51,000 offensive Data from Cointelegraph Markets Pro and TradingView showed BTC/USD gaining ground after dipping to $48,300 lows overnight. An important retest, Bitcoin price action then reversed upward, giving hope that $50,000 may now be able to cement itself as support. Should that happen and $51,000 resistance fades, the chances favor an impulse move to the upside, Cointelegraph contributing analyst Michaël van de Poppe said. “The moment that Bitcoin is breaking out of this $51,000 level, the chances are that we just get one vertical candle towards $58,000, or even $60,000,” he predicted in his l...

In an effort to increase customers’ security and privacy on its platform, cryptocurrency exchange Bitfinex has announced the adoption of open authentication standard universal second factor (U2F) within its merchant payments service, Bitfinex Pay. The move enables the capacity for online stores and merchants adopting the Bitfinex Pay widget to receive payments for goods and services in a range of crypto assets, including Bitcoin (BTC), Ether (ETH), Lightning Network BTC (LN-BTC) and Tether (USDT) on the Ethereum and Tron blockchains. Customers of a registered merchant can choose the “Pay with Bitfinex” option upon checkout. After a brief detour through the Bitfinex payment gateway, the customer will be returned to the merchant’s website. Once confirmed, payment will...