Crypto

There is an old proverb which says that history does not always repeat, but it tends to rhyme. If that holds true for Bitcoin (BTC), then a strong up-move may not happen in the month of September.  Bybit data shows that since 2013, Bitcoin has closed September in the red for six years and has managed a positive monthly close only on two occasions. The best performance was in 2016 when Bitcoin rose 6.04%. Daily cryptocurrency market performance. Source: Coin360 However, September’s poor historical performance has not stopped small and large traders from accumulating Bitcoin in August. Ecoinometrics reported rising account balances for addresses holding 1,000 to 10,000 BTC and for accounts that hold less than one Bitcoin. Will September’s poor historical record scare away the bulls...

Global business provider Zventus announced a new blockchain initiative on Monday titled “Mortgage Blockchain Lab.” The proposal is meant to collate the resources of several mortgage experts, technology firms and academic institutions to collaborate on blockchain research and development focused on the mortgage sector.  The California-based firm, whose product and service offering spans a broad business spectrum including business consultancy, human resource strategy and tech support, will work with the lab’s partners in this blockchain sandbox to trial and test new products and services. Early reports from the firm suggest the potential to reduce costs of loans for financial organizations exceeds 50% once the services are launched. Zventus President Angel Alban believes in the v...

The Ethereum (ETH) network continues to enjoy the status of being the top smart contract platform in the blockchain industry, but the competition is slowly gaining market share because high costs and network congestion are still challenges for the protocol.  One project that has been gaining traction in the month of August is Fantom (FTM), a layer-one smart contract platform that utilizes a directed acyclic graph architecture as a means to solving the problems of slow transaction speeds and high transaction fees. Data from Cointelegraph Markets Pro and TradingView shows that since hitting a low of $0.15 on July 20, the price of FTM has rocketed 500% to an intraday high at $0.90 on Aug. 30 as its 24-hour trading volume exploded by 1,250% to a record $1.26 billion. FTM/USDT 4-hour chart...

Very few events can shake the cryptocurrency markets in a sustainable manner that really sends Bitcoin and altcoin prices into a sharp directional move. One example is when Xi Jinping, China’s President, called for the development of blockchain technology throughout the country in October 2019.  The unexpected news caused a 42% pump in Bitcoin (BTC), but the movement completely faded away as investors realized China was not altering its negative stance on cryptocurrencies. As a result, only a handful of tokens focused on China’s FinTech industry, blockchain tracing, and industry automation saw their prices consolidate at higher levels. Some ‘crypto news’ and regulatory development have a lasting impact on investors’ perceptions and willingness to interact...

A consortium of leading decentralized finance (DeFi) protocols today announced a collaborative $100 million financial inclusion venture titled “DeFi for the People.” The DeFi applications involved in the project — AAVE, SushiSwap, Curve, 0x and PoolTogether, amongst others — will together provide up to $100 million in educational initiatives, grants, and incentives in an effort to educate individuals globally about decentralized finance. The initiative — built on the Celo ecosystem — identified the lack of inclusivity and accessibility in the traditional financial markets, and in turn, aims to utilize the decentralized nature of crypto and blockchain to provide finance to the world’s 6 billion mobile phone users. Celo is an open-source blockchain ecosystem consisting of individuals and org...

The nonfungible token (NFT) space is arguably one of the most popular aspects of crypto and blockchain technology. Indeed, NFTs are often the topic of conversation, garnering significant interest both from inside and outside the industry. Such is the growing appeal of NFTs outside the crypto space that major brands like Visa and Budweiser are now acquiring popular items from popular collections. These moves are different from the usual corporate interactions with nonfungible tokens that often involve creating their own digital goods. As is often the case with crypto and blockchain matters, significant adoption from major legacy players triggers a FOMO-driven frenzy. Several NFT collections have seen massive price floor raises as other collectors hop into the trend. Beyond the current hype,...

Speaking in a recent interview, subprime short investor and billionaire portfolio manager John Paulson criticized the volatile nature of digital assets, while advocating for investments in traditional safe-havens such as gold. The co-founder of Paulson & Co, a New York-based firm launched in 1994, Paulson was a historic beneficiary from the U.S. housing financial market collapse of 2008 after placing a legendary successful short position. However, Paulson recently took the decision to devolve his hedge fund into a family office after a 76.5% reduction in assets under management value from a peak of $38 billion in 2011 to $9 billion in 2019. In the interview, Paulson was asked his views on the emerging cryptocurrency market, to which he claimed that the assets have a “limited suppl...

Although the cryptocurrency sector may still be considered the “Wild West” by some governments and regulators, continued adoption and emerging use cases show that digital currencies are here to stay. Some even argue that blockchain-based networks and decentralized finance, or DeFi, platforms may soon replace traditional financial systems. Yet despite ongoing progress, the crypto industry is still young and, therefore, requires further development before it can be widely accepted. One area in particular that needs deeper addressing within the crypto space is regulation. Mohamed El-Erian, chief economic advisor at Allianz — a German multinational financial services company — stated in a Financial Times article that it’s the duty of crypto proponents to cultivate better relationships wit...

OpenSea’s Head of Product Nate Chastain posted a plea for help, revealing the popular marketplace currently comprises just 37 people despite currently processing 98% of all NFT volumes. The world’s largest nonfungible token marketplace, OpenSea, is desperately in need of staff as NFT mania continues to ramp up. We need to ramp up hiring at OpenSea. We are 37 people handling 98% of all NFT volume. Referral bonus: Will pay 1 ETH to anyone who connects us to engineers or designers that we hire. Resumes to opensearoles@gmail.com. Candidates: Use https://t.co/adazqldv91 directly. — Nate Chastain (natec.eth) (@natechastain) August 29, 2021 Chastain added that referral bonuses are also available, stating: “Will pay 1 ETH to anyone who connects us to engineers or designers that we hire.” The compa...

Solana (SOL) prices rose on Aug. 30 as traders speculated on what appeared to be a key but mysterious feature launch later this week. The SOL/USD exchange rate climbed to a new record high of $103.06 following a 9.35% intraday rally. The upside move surfaced days after Solana introduced “Ignition” on their official media handles. However, the team provided little details about the tool but prompted the community to guess that it would be about burning SOL tokens. The speculation surfaced majorly because of Solana’s Ignition teaser video, which featured a purple flamed lighter. burn… — #A_freak_show_to_freaks (@JustDafong) August 27, 2021 Ignition might not be a SOL token burning event As a public blockchain, Solana relies on SOL to aid two primary tasks: Staking and...

Bilaxy, a lesser-known cryptocurrency exchange, has confirmed a major hacking incident, reporting losses of funds due to an exploit of the platform’s ERC-20 hot wallet. Bilaxy announced on its Telegram channel that the crypto exchange suffered a “serious hack” on Aug. 28 between 6 p.m. and 7 p.m. UTC, resulting in the transfer of 295 different ERC-20 tokens. According to the exchange, the affected tokens were transferred by the hacker to a single address. At the time of writing, the tokens are valued at $170,600, with the most recent transaction sending out 50 Ether (ETH), or about $159,000, on Aug. 30. Shortly after detecting abnormal hot wallet transactions, Bilaxy suspended its website to take emergency measures and move “hundreds of tokens” from its hot wallet to cold wallets in order ...

Authorities from Russia’s Zavolzhsky district have found a 34-year-old local man guilty of stealing cryptocurrency mining equipment worth more than 1.6 million rubles (nearly $22,000). According to the report shared by the Prosecutor’s Office of the Yaroslavl Region, the state prosecutor confirmed that the Yaroslavl resident was found entering a friend’s garage unlawfully back in Feb. 2021 and stealing their mining equipment that was intended to be used for earning cryptocurrency. The authorities found the Russian man to be guilty of committing a crime, citing large-scale theft of property and illegal entry. In court, the convict reportedly admitted to the charges and voluntarily returned the stolen crypto mining equipment back to its original owner. Additionally, he also admitted to...