Crypto

The cryptocurrency space recorded massive adoption in August despite some regulatory agencies clamping down on the activities of cryptocurrency service providers More financial institutions are getting in on cryptocurrency One of the most interesting trends in August is the continued adoption of cryptocurrencies by institutional investors. MicroStrategy confirmed its status as perhaps the most bullish corporate entity in the cryptocurrency space after spending another $177 million on Bitcoin. Over the past few months, the company has bought Bitcoin worth nearly $3 billion, making it one of the biggest holders of the cryptocurrency. The company holds over 100,000 bitcoins, worth over $5 billion. Financial institutions also got in on the act of adopting cryptocurrencies. Citigroup is expecte...

Sweeping legislation allowing officials from the Australian Federal Police and Australian Criminal Intelligence Commission to target suspected criminals online has passed through the country’s parliament with bipartisan support. On August 25, the Identify and Disrupt bill passed through Australia’s Senate, introducing three new warrants allowing authorities to take unprecedented action against suspected cybercriminals. The new warrants include authorizing police to hack the personal computers and networks of suspected criminals, seize control of their online accounts and identities, and disrupt their data. Home Affairs Minister, Karen Andrews, praised the broad expansion of powers available to Australian authorities targeting cyber actors. “Under our changes, the AFP will have more tools t...

Turkish media reports that authorities there are investigating an alleged Dogecoin mining scam that  pulled the rug on investors after amassing $119 million worth of deposits. An Aug. 23rd report from local channel TV100 broke the news, with police identifying pseudonymous online avatar “Turgut V.” as the scheme’s suspected operator. Authorities believe that Turgut and 11 associates managed to gather close to 350 million Dogecoin valued at $119 million before disappearing. Turgut reportedly solicited investments from 1,500 Turkish citizens, drumming up excitement for the Dogecoin “mining” operation at in-person networking events held at ritzy locations, and by using a Telegram group online. Investors were promised returns of 100% in 40 days and reportedly paid returns for around 3 mon...

Gold proponent and crypto skeptic Peter Schiff has been crowned the winner of a debate on whether gold is a superior store of value to Bitcoin. Schiff was facing off against Skybridge founder and former politician Anthony Scaramucci in a debate hosted by Intelligence Squared on Aug 25. Before the gold vs Bitcoin debate began, a poll scored 38% of the online audience in favor of the precious metal, 26% for BTC and 35% as undecided. Schiff was able to swing a significant number to the precious metal by the end, with final results tallying in at 51% for gold, 32% for BTC and 17% undecided. Scaramucci kicked things off by asserting that BTC’s value is derived from its network which enables peer-to-peer transactions without a third party. He also suggested that BTC has an edge over gold because...

Cardano founder Charles Hoskinson has responded to criticism over The Cardano Foundation’s partnership with Confirm, saying it was necessary for adoption of ADA. The Cardano Foundation announced its partnership with the blockchain analytics provider on Aug. 24, which will see Confirm’s analytics being utilized to ensure compliance with frameworks such as the 6th Anti Money Laundering Directive and Financial Action Task Force’s guidelines. “The tools and services provided by Coinfirm enables every exchange, custodian, and all other third-parties to clearly track the history of ADA held in their wallet,” the announcement read. Not everyone welcomed the move however. Yesterday Weiss Crypto, the subsidiary of financial ratings firm Weiss Ratings, criticized it vociferously via a thread on Twit...

Chainlink (LINK) is the leading oracle provider, and the project has onboarded over 281 crypto projects in 2021. Some of these include heavyweights like Huobi’s ECO Chain, the Hedera Governing Council, and Alchemix.  Launched in Oct. 2020, Chainlink’s verifiable randomness function, or VRF, has also gained notoriety among decentralized applications (dApps). VRF provides an automated source of randomness to ensure prizes and rewards are issued in a verifiably fair fashion. For example, on Aug. 13, Arbitrum — a layer-two Ethereum scaling solution — launched a beta mainnet service integrated with Chainlink’s oracle data feed and intends to add a “Proof of Reserve” service allowing collateralized assets to be audited using the oracle provider’s web API....

After four years of debate, a five-star hotel in a luxurious area of the Swiss Alps is prepared to accept Bitcoin (BTC)  and Ether (ETH) as payment from guests. According to an Aug. 26 report from Swiss news outlet Blick, guests at the Chedi Andermatt hotel are now allowed to settle bills of more than 200 Swiss francs — roughly $218 — using Bitcoin or Ether. Prices are still seemingly set in fiat to reduce any risk of volatility, with the hotel converting any cryptocurrency received immediately into francs. “We have long known that cryptocurrencies also have a future in hotel operations,” said the hotel’s general manager Jean-Yves Blatt. “In the course of the increasing spread and acceptance of cryptocurrency payments, we are proud to be one of the first Swiss luxury hotels ...

Kate Rouch will be joining major cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase after more than 11 years in various positions at Facebook.  In a Thursday blog post, Coinbase chief operating officer Emilie Choi said the company had hired Rouch as its new chief marketing officer, responsible for overseeing the exchange’s global brand, as well as product and performance marketing. Until recently, she was the global head of brand and product marketing at social media giant Facebook, but now aims “to bring millions more people into the cryptoeconomy.” “I am so inspired by what I’ve learned about crypto, and the vast ecosystem it is helping to usher forth,” said Rouch. “I can’t wait to get started helping to introduce millions more people to the benefits of crypto.” The addition of Rouch comes as Coinbas...

Bears pressed harder on the market on Aug. 26 after Bitcoin (BTC) continued its pullback to an intra-day low at $46,250 and altcoins nursed near double-digit losses. While most of the market is seeing red, a few altcoins managed to notch notable gains due to exchange listings and new staking opportunities. Top seven coins with the highest 24-hour price change. Source: Cointelegraph Markets Pro Data from Cointelegraph Markets Pro and TradingView shows that the biggest gainers over the past 24 hours were COTI, XYO Network (XYO) and Conflux Network (CFX). COTI rallies after listing on Coinbase The top-performing coin over the past 24 hours was COTI, an enterprise-grade fintech platform focused on decentralized payments. VORTECS™ data from Cointelegraph Markets Pro began to detect a bul...

Recently, the Ethereum network reached a new staking milestone. On Aug. 17, the Ethereum 2.0 staking contract became the single largest holder of Ether (ETH), surpassing Wrapped Ether (WETH). According to data from Etherscan, the Eth2 deposit contract now holds over 7.14 million Ether tokens, valued at $23 billion at the time of writing. This accounts for nearly 6.1% of all Ether tokens in circulation, which means that the staking rate for Ethereum is now over 6%. The Wrapped Ether deposit contract comes in second, holding 6.97 million tokens — i.e., 5.94% of all Ether. Data from Beaconcha.in reveals that there are now 217,354 validators on the Ethereum network. Right away, this has made Ether the third most staked cryptocurrency. According to data from Staking Rewards, the Ethereum 2.0 de...

The transition to a more digitalized society based on an information economy has created intense pressure for companies to rethink their intellectual property (IP) management. Intangible assets can represent more than 80% of the value in a firm’s balance sheet, and intellectual property in the United States is now worth over $6 trillion in gross domestic product, according to the U.S. Department of Commerce. Well-managed and leveraged IP can provide a company with a strategic advantage over the competition — not only in terms of customer acquisition, but also with investors and potential employees. Yet these valuable assets present a unique set of challenges for organizations wanting to capture the full value of their IP as it scales and matures. A complicated web Securing IP is a multifac...