Crypto

Crypto criminals are getting more adaptive and smarter than ever before. But how can industry service providers keep up with them? If I say that the crypto industry is highly targeted by cybercriminals and, in particular, organized criminals, I’m sure that no one who has spent a few months within the space would be surprised. And for a valid reason. Due to the new technology and the nascent nature of the sector, criminals and fraudsters have long identified the excellent opportunity that crypto offers to profit via illicit methods. Indeed, any “new” approach to the financial sector is welcomed by the criminal fraternity as an opportunity to launder funds and find new victims. While the situation has improved significantly since the early days of digital assets, political and financial indu...

Bitcoin (BTC) rewards company GoSats has launched a new cashback rewards card for customers in India, potentially setting the stage for wider mainstream adoption of digital assets in the world’s second-most populous country.  The new product is being introduced in partnership with the National Payments Corporation of India, also known as NPCI, which is a not-for-profit organisation dedicated to promoting digital payments and settlement systems across the country. The organization was founded in December 2008 and is under the direct ownership of the Reserve Bank of India. The GoSats rewards card, which is accessible through mobile app and browser extension, allows users to earn cashback paid in BTC while shopping at major brands such as Amazon, Starbucks and Flipkart. The NPCI partners...

The blockchain industry market size was estimated by some to reach more than $21 billion by 2025. The market capitalization of the cryptocurrency market as a whole already reaches over $1.9 trillion. An ecosystem that was once defined by its tight-knit community and exclusivity now reaches governments, businesses, institutional investors and individuals who are all becoming more positive about the evolving space. With this new popularity, a crossroads has emerged. We have reached the stage of adoption where the amount of users utilizing decentralized technology has exceeded the functionality of the technology itself. This has resulted in regularly congested networks and a demand for solutions. Many of the roadblocks we are experiencing could easily be solved with scaling solutions such as ...

Bitcoin (BTC) saw lows of under $45,600 on Aug. 15 as a second instalment of its resistance rejection played out.  BTC/USD 1-hour price chart (Bitstamp). Source: TradingView Analysts eye BTC attack on all-time highs Data from Cointelegraph Markets Pro and TradingView showed BTC/USD giving up $46,000 overnight on Saturday after an earlier failed breakout.  As Cointelegraph reported, bulls had run out of steam during an attack on a major sell wall holding Bitcoin back from $50,000. The U-turn sparked a more fragile mood for Sunday, with daily losses sitting at 4% at the time of writing. “This area is to me the major boss and hurdle to climb,” popular Twitter trader Pentoshi warned, adopting a bullish view on higher timeframes. BTC/USD, he added, had almost completed pre...

The study of history and ancient people is immensely important to preserving the knowledge passed down through the generations.  Unfortunately, the significance of the knowledge is particularly acute when it is lost. With tragedies such as the fire of the Library of Alexandria, or the pillaging of the House of Wisdom in ancient Baghdad, or the more recent losses of artifacts at the Iraq Museum, perspectives were lost, advancements in philosophy and literature were forgotten, and languages and translations vanished from the earth.  As we look to preserve our history, how can we safeguard the artifacts of our heritage from disaster? Using blockchain technology to keep a record of the data stored on a decentralized cloud service could be exactly what the historical and archive indus...

Nonfungible tokens, or NFTs, are digital records of the ownership of assets. The asset types most commonly associated with NFTs are digital assets, such as artwork like memes, GIFs, or gaming characters or properties. Assets represented by NFTs, however, may be digital, physical, tangible or intangible. Examples of asset types that have been transferred or that have had their ownership recorded utilizing NFTs include sports memorabilia, copyrights in music, artwork and real estate. Intellectual property assets and, specifically, the ownership and transfer of ownership of patents may also be recorded and transferred as NFTs. Related: Nonfungible tokens from a legal perspective The ownership of real estate may be recorded in a registry of deeds, the ownership of patents may be recorded in th...

XRP price almost surged to its three-month high following a strong uptrend continuation on Aug. 14. Nevertheless, its wild weekly run-up triggered overvaluation risks, thus raising possibilities of an imminent price pullback. In detail, the XRP/USD exchange popped 11.78% higher to reach $1.20 for the first time since May 22. The pair’s gains appeared as a part of a prevailing bullish trend that started July 20 when it was trading for as low as $0.154 — a 134% upside retracement on the whole. On a week-to-date timeframe, the XRP/USD rates were up circa 54%. XRP overbought The latest bullish moves in the XRP market prompted two classic indicators to forecast imminent price corrections. The first indicator is the relative strength indicator (RSI). It represents a magnitude of price...

Being bullish on Ether (ETH) has paid off recently because the token gained 60% in the last 30 days. The spectacular growth of decentralized finance (DeFi) applications likely fueled inflow from institutional investors, and the recent London hard fork implemented a fee burn mechanism that drastically reduced the daily net issuance. Although Ether is not yet a fully deflationary asset, the upgrade paved the way for Eth2, and the network is expected to abandon traditional mining and enter the proof-of-stake consensus soon. Ether will then be slightly deflationary as long as fees remain above a certain threshold and the level of network staking. In light of the recent rally, there are still daily calls for Ether to rally above $5,000, but surely even the most bullish investors know that a 90%...

Bitcoin (BTC) bounced at $46,000 support on Aug. 14 after an attempt to crack major resistance ended in rejection. BTC/USD 1-hour price chart (Bitstamp). Source: TradingView Bitcoin rejects at $48,000 Data from Cointelegraph Markets Pro and TradingView showed BTC/USD rising to tackle a giant sell wall during Saturday, only to reverse downwards to Friday’s levels. As Cointelegraph reported, the area of seller pressure from $47,000 and upwards had been a formidable feature on the daily chart throughout the week, with Bitcoin taking several days to prepare its attack. In the event, the wall was only partially broken before momentum ran out and BTC/USD returning to more familiar territory. At the time of writing, BTC price action focused around $46,500, a classic “Bart Simpson̶...

Emerging economies like Vietnam, India and Indonesia are leading the charge when it comes to cryptocurrency adoption, underscoring important use cases for digital assets tied to remittances and financial inclusion.  Finder’s survey of 42,000 people across 27 countries revealed that Vietnam had the highest adoption rate, with 41% of respondents claiming they had purchased cryptocurrency. Twenty percent of Vietnamese said they had purchased Bitcoin (BTC), which was the highest among all countries polled. Although Vietnam’s strong outperformance may appear surprising at the surface, Finder’s survey corroborated other data showing that the southeast Asian country is punching above its weight when it comes to crypto adoption. As Cointelegraph reported in June, Vietnam ranked 13th in realiz...