Crypto
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Institutions are buying Bitcoin like it’s late 2020
Bitcoin (BTC) reserves on derivatives exchanges have dropped to levels last seen before the May price crash. Data from on-chain analytics service CryptoQuant confirmed that as of Tuesday, derivatives reserves totaled 1.256 million BTC — the least since May 11. Institutions repeat Q4 2020 Against a backdrop of institutional interest returning to cryptocurrency instruments such as the Grayscale Bitcoin Trust (GBTC), figures show that major players have in fact been adding to their BTC holdings throughout the downturn. “Big money has been buying,” analyst William Clemente III commented this week. Exchange balances prove the point, with derivatives platforms seeing a repeat of the trend last witnessed at the end of 2020. Even during the most intense phase of the BTC bull run this year, de...
Coinbase removes ‘backed by US dollars’ claim for USDC stablecoin
USD Coin (USDC), Circle’s dollar-pegged stablecoin, seemingly lost one of its biggest competitive advantages over its main rival, Tether (USDT). Major crypto exchange Coinbase made an important change on the USD Coin page on its website following an audit that revealed that not all of USDC’s reserves were held in cash. This ran contrary to the previous statement that “each USDC is backed by one U.S. dollar held in a bank account.” Coinbase visitors are now greeted with a statement that says USDC is “backed by fully reserved assets” when they enter the USD Coin webpage. This new claim states: “Each USDC is backed by one dollar or asset with equivalent fair value, which is held in accounts with US regulated financial institutions.” Coinbase changed the promotional material for USDC. So...
Women from small cities contribute to 65% of crypto sign ups in India
India’s regulatory uncertainties have not affected the investor’s sentiment toward crypto as the latest data from crypto exchanges suggests a rising influx of users. Binance-owned Indian crypto exchange WazirX reported 2,648% growth to date in user signups from smaller cities across India, also known as tier-II and tier-III cities, which can host up to 100,000 citizens. The Mumbai-based exchange reported: “Tier-II and tier-III cities have driven almost 55% of total user signups on WazirX in 2021.” The data also highlighted a rise in the number of female investors and enthusiasts across the country. Out of all the signups attributed to Indian women on WazirX, 65% of the accounts are based out of India’s tier-II and tier-III cities. Citing the pandemic-induced lockdown as a primary cat...
Poly Network hacker appears ready to return stolen funds
Following a massive $600-million exploit of cross-chain protocol Poly Network, the Poly Network hacker has claimed his willingness to return the stolen cryptocurrency funds. At about 4:00 am UTC on Wednesday, the hacker sent an Ethereum transaction to themselves, stating that they were “ready to return the fund” in an embedded transaction message. Source: Etherscan In a subsequent message, the hacker asked for a multisig wallet address to return the funds to Poly Network. “Failed to contact the poly. I need a secured multisig wallet from you,” the hacker noted. Poly Network’s Twitter account posted an update on Wednesday, providing three separate wallet addresses intended for the hacker to send the stolen funds back to the network. “We are preparing a multisig address controlled by known P...
Ethereum could test resistance level above $3,300 soon
Ethereum has crossed the $3,200 level for the first time in months and could soon test the resistance at the 23.6% Fib level at $3,369 The broader cryptocurrency market has been rallying over the past few days, and Ethereum is at the heart of it. The second-largest cryptocurrency by market cap is up by nearly 30% in the past week and looks to extend its rally over the next few hours and days. Ether didn’t perform well yesterday, dropping by 0.64% before reversing the losses and embarking on a mini-rally to end the day trading above $3,100. The cryptocurrency has managed to stay above the $3,200 region for the past few hours, and there is optimism that it could soon test higher resistance levels. https://twitter.com/rektcapital/status/1425085830239039491 ETH price outlook The ETH/USDT pair ...
A quantum computer-resistant blockchain is under development
IDB Lab, Cambridge Quantum and Tecnológico de Monterrey have been building a quantum-proof cryptographic layer on LACChain People in the blockchain industry have been talking for a while about what effect quantum computers might have on the sector. These are machines that carry out computations through the use of quantum physical properties. While traditional computers use binary “bits” to encode information, quantum computers use quantum bits (qubits), which can represent many different things at the same time. This means quantum computers can evaluate a huge number of possibilities simultaneously, making them well suited to decryption. In fact, CNBC suggested that quantum computers could be capable of hacking cryptocurrency wallets within a decade. But things may not be as bleak as they ...
Poly Network is the victim of the biggest DeFi hack to date
The Poly Network reportedly lost over $600 million in a deadly attack, the likes of which hasn’t been before in the decentralised finance (DeFi) sector Cross-chain protocol Poly Network reported yesterday that it had suffered a massive attack, with over $600 million lost to the hackers. The development team announced this yesterday, with the news sending a shock wave through the DeFi world. According to the development team, the Poly Network was attacked on the Ethereum, Binance Smart Chain (BSC) and Polygon networks. The attacks resulted in the loss of $611 million, the largest in the history of the DeFi sector. https://twitter.com/PolyNetwork2/status/1425073987164381196 The team has urged miners of the affected blockchain and cryptocurrency exchanges to blacklist tokens coming from the s...
Coinbase’s Q2 profits top $1.6B as ETH volume surpasses BTC’s for the first time
Coinbase generated $2.23 billion of revenue for the second quarter of 2021, as Ethereum (ETH) trading volume surpassed Bitcoin (BTC) for the first time on the platform. Coinbase posted its Q2 report on Aug. 10 and the crypto exchange’s revenue beat analyst predictions — with industry standard financial estimators Refinitiv forecasting $1.78 billion in expected revenue for the firm. Coinbase’s earnings per share came in at $3.45, compared to estimates of $2.33. The trading platform posted a net profit of $1.6 billion in Q2, a whopping increase of 4,900% compared to the $32 million recorded in the same period in 2020. For the first time in Coinbase’s nine-year history, ETH flipped BTC in trading volume, with the assets representing 26% and 24% of total volume respectively. BTC trading volume...
Fake vax certificates renew calls for blockchain-based solution in Australia
With counterfeit Australian coronavirus vaccination certificates circulating online, local experts are calling for the national rollout of a blockchain-based vaccine passport to ensure the efficacy of the country’s “Covid certificate” system. A report in The Australian cites fraudsters who claim to have sold more than 200 fake COVID-19 certificates for $120 or more each and received interest from at least 900 other prospective customers. The fraudsters promote their products as being so convincing that “You’ll be the only one to know you’ve not been vaccinated” and claim they can arrange for doctors to enter false vaccination records into the Australian Immunization Registry. The fraudsters are not without competitors, with another vendor of fraudulent Covid certificates claiming to have p...
Ethereum supply flips briefly into deflation as gas fees spike
The theoretical deflationary properties of Ethereum’s London upgrade last week have already been seen in action on the blockchain with almost 800 “deflationary blocks” produced. A spike in the Ethereum transaction fee burn rate has resulted in at least two hours when the supply was deflationary. The network has come under heavy load over the past couple of days which has resulted in a lot more gas being burnt. Around four hours ago (as of 22.00 UTC), the ‘ETH Burn Bot’ recorded an instance when 545 ETH was burnt within a one-hour period. With Ethereum issuance reported at 532 ETH per hour, it resulted in the asset seeing deflation of minus 13 ETH for that brief period. A larger deflationary burn was detected by the ETH Burn Bot a couple of hours later in which 945 tokens were b...
Venmo enables users to automatically buy crypto with ‘cash back’ rewards
Paypal-owned payments firm Venmo has launched a new crypto ‘cash back’ feature that includes zero transactions on crypto purchases. According to an Aug. 10 announcement, Venmo’s “Cash Back to Crypto” service went live yesterday and enables credit card customers to spend their cashback rewards on digital assets hosted on the platform. Say hello to Cash Back to Crypto with the Venmo Credit Card, rolling out to eligible cardholders over the coming weeks. Learn more → https://t.co/zvQfMxIZl5 pic.twitter.com/wcroWuaapW — Venmo (@Venmo) August 10, 2021 Venmo offers its credit cardholders between 1% and 3% cash back on select purchases, and the new feature also includes free transactions on any crypto purchases —while conversion fees for swapping between assets are built into each mon...
BREAKING: BitMEX will pay $100M in penalties to FinCEN, CFTC
Crypto derivatives exchange BitMEX has agreed to pay up to $100 million to resolve a case from the United States Commodity Futures Trading Commission, or CFTC, and the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network, or FinCEN. In a Tuesday announcement, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission said the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York had entered a consent order for HDR Global Trading Limited, 100x Holding Limited, ABS Global Trading Limited, Shine Effort Inc Limited and HDR Global Services Limited to be charged with illegally operating the BitMEX platform. As part of the settlement with both the CFTC and FinCEN, BitMEX will pay a $100 million civil monetary penalty “for illegally operating a cryptocurrency trading platform and anti-money laundering violations.” In addi...
