Crypto

The marketwide sell-off on May 19 triggered a 55% decline in the price of Bitcoin (BTC), and altcoins were hit even harder, with some tokens seeing declines of up to 90%. One project whose native token price appears to have bottomed out after an 87% decline from its all-time high is Verasity, an e-sports-focused blockchain protocol focused on increasing engagement and advertising revenues for video publishers. Data from Cointelegraph Markets Pro and TradingView shows that after declining from a high at $0.0558 on April 17 to a low of $0.0073 on July 20, the price of Verasity’s VRA token has rallied 230% to an intraday high at $0.024 on Aug. 17 as its 24-hour trading volume steadily increases.  VRA/USD 1-daychart. Source: TradingView Three reasons the price of VRA may b...

Smart contract platform Avalanche has announced a $180 million liquidity mining incentive program, named Avalanche Rush. The program aims to encourage more applications and tokens to move to Avalanche’s DeFi platform, according to the release. It’s set to follow a multi-stage deployment starting with the Aave and Curve protocols, before expanding to other assets in the coming months. For this first stage, Avalanche will allocate up to $20M AVAX tokens for Aave and $7M AVAX tokens for Curve over a 3 month period. At the same time, the Avalanche Foundation will sponsor the launch of Benqi’s DeFi protocol native to the Avalanche network with a $3M allocation starting August 19. News of the Rush program follows the re-release of the Avalanche Bridge — an upgraded version of the project’s...

The football ecosystem has stepped up its adoption game as more clubs continue to involve crypto in mainstream operations.  Netherland-based top-tier football club PSV Eindhoven has partnered with local crypto trading platform Anycoin Direct, which will pay the club an undisclosed amount of Bitcoin (BTC) in a new sponsorship deal. According to the official statement, Anycoin Direct will remain an official partner of PSV Eindhoven for the next two seasons with the goal of growing awareness of crypto across Europe. By using the crypto platform’s services, PSV Eindhoven will be able to receive the total sponsorship amount in Bitcoin, making it the first major football club in the European Union to get paid sponsorship in cryptocurrency. PSV Eindhoven commercial director Frans Janssen rep...

Tether Holdings Ltd, the issuer of the largest stablecoin, Tether (USDT), reported that its total market capitalization had crossed $64 billion for the first time in history. The company called the event a “milestone,” adding that it is another indication of the cryptocurrency market’s “continued trust and confidence” in its stablecoin. Tether’s $USDt market cap hits $64B! A new milestone reached and another indication of the market’s continued trust and confidence in #Tether ! pic.twitter.com/t85i6e6UQt — Tether (@Tether_to) August 16, 2021 In detail, Tether’s business model revolves around providing digitized dollars to cryptocurrency traders and investors. In doing so, the company offers them a way to park their volatile digital assets into USDT, a digital asset that maintains a one-to-...

Digital asset exchange and service provider, Crypto.com, has launched withdrawals via U.S. dollar bank transfers for institutional clients across more than 60 countries. According to an August 18 announcement, the expanded fiat functionality for institutional account holders has been enabled by its partnership with Circle. Institutional customers are now able to withdraw dollars from their Crypto.com USD Coin (USDC) wallet via bank at a 1:1 basis using a unique code provided by Circle. Bank transfers are expected to be processed within three business days. Kris Marszalek, CEO and co-founder of Crypto.com, stated: “Our integration with Circle provides Institutional clients with a robust and stable USD fiat on and off ramp to the Crypto.com Exchange.” Crypto.com announced its partnership wit...

Mikhail Fedorov, Ukraine’s Deputy Prime Minister and the head of the country’s Ministry of Digital Transformation, has revealed a possible early use case for the nation’s planned central bank digital currency (CBDC). In a recent interview published by Ukrainian media outlet TSN, the minister revealed considerations within the ministry to test out the CBDC by using the electronic currency in staff salary payments: “Frankly as one of the first pilots, we have on the table the question of paying salaries to employees of the Ministry of Digital Transformation in electronic hryvnia.” Fedorov made these comments while arguing the case for the initial roll-out of the e-hryvnia to focus on a small, controlled use case rather than being deployed for social payments. According to Fedorov, there is t...

Argo Blockchain is reducing the greenhouse gas emissions associated with its crypto mining activities as part of its Climate Positive Strategy Cryptocurrency mining firm Argo Blockchain announced yesterday that it had become climate positive for its Scope 1, 2 and 3 greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. This means it is achieving carbon neutrality by addressing its own emissions, while also supporting projects to further mitigate emissions. Argo is the first publicly traded crypto mining company to do so. Reducing its GHG emissions is just one part of the company’s Climate Positive Strategy. It has already prioritised the use of renewable power on its site, signed both the UNFCCC Climate Neutral Now Pledge and the Crypto Climate Accord, and purchased Verified Emissions Reductions (VERs) and Hydr...

The last-minute cryptocurrency provisions added to the U.S. infrastructure bill sought to “capture DeFi,” argues Compound’s general counsel Jake Chervinsky. Appearing on the Bankless State of the Network podcast on August 17, Chervinsky — who is also DeFi Chair of the Blockchain Association — said the industry had been “blindsided” by the infrastructure bill’s crypto tax provisions which were announced just nine days prior to when it was expected to pass through the senate. While Chervinsky seemed willing to give most elected officials the benefit of the doubt, noting that previous discussions surrounding the infrastructure bill had “nothing to do with crypto,” he attributed more sinister motives to the Treasury Department’s role in influencing the legislative process. Conceding he may hav...

Creator of the beloved, sometimes controversial Pepe the Frog meme, Matt Furie requested that a frog-themed NFT project worth $4M be removed from OperSea fo copyright infringement. The “Sad Frogs District” is an NFT project containing 7000 programmatically generated Sad Frog NFTs from a selection of around 200 traits. The artwork depicted in the NFTs may draw some inspiration from Furie’s character Pepe. According to OpenSea’s Community-help Discord channel on Aug. 17, numerous members had asked why the verified NFT project had been delisted as they could no longer access the Sad Frog NFTs on the platform. An OpenSea moderator later confirmed the delisting, noting that “Pepe items have been delisted due to a DMCA takedown request by the creator of Pepe, Matt Furie.” The Sad Frogs District ...

Michael Burry, the investor made famous by The Big Short movie, has taken out a major short position against Cathie Woods’ ARK Innovation ETF According to second-quarter 13f filings, Burry’s hedge fund Scion Asset Management has purchased $31 million worth of bearish put options against 235,000 shares of the ETF. Put options are a way of profiting from the decline in value of a stock or fund. The Innovation ETF is the largest ARK fund with $22.62B in assets. It invests in a range of disruptive tech companies including Tesla, Square, Coinbase, as well as the Grayscale Bitcoin Trust. Burry wasn’t the only firm to short ARK’s flagship fund according to the filings. Laurion Capital Management held roughly $171 million worth of put options against 1.3 million shares an GoldenTree Asset Manageme...