Crypto

Large price jumps and 100x gains get a lot of attention from pundits and influencers in the cryptocurrency community because they offer the hope of overnight riches. In reality, these opportunities are few and far between. Not to mention, only a handful of traders actually manage to catch these waves and cash out in time to lock in life-changing money.  Fortunately, catching a large price surge is far from being the only way for crypto investors to make a buck, and the recent rise of decentralized finance (DeFi), nonfungible tokens (NFTs) and the slow march of mainstream crypto adoption provides a near endless stream of investment opportunities. Let’s have a look at five different ways crypto holders can make an easy buck without actually having to trade. Staking Staking, which reward...

Ether (ETH) rallied 35% over the past ten days and reclaimed the critical $2,300 support, but the crucial $2,450 local top hasn’t been tested since June 17. Part of the recent recovery can be attributed to the London hard fork, which is expected to go live on Aug. 4.  Traders and investors view the EIP-1559 launch as a bullish factor for Ether price because it is expected to reduce gas fees. However, Ether miners are not thrilled with the proposal because the proof-of-work model will no longer be necessary after ETH2.0 goes live. The network fees will automatically be set, although users can choose to pay extra for faster confirmation. Miners (or validators in the future) will receive this additional fee, but the base fee will be burned. In a nutshell, Ether is expected to becom...

Every four years (usually), the world comes together in a celebration of sport and competition at the Olympic Games. In the spirit of Tokyo 2020, let’s look at countries that are deserving of gold medals across different spheres of the cryptocurrency and blockchain space. The variety of sports featured at the Olympics have changed over the years, and the current summer Olympics in Japan features a total of 33 different sports. Exciting competitions like skateboarding and surfing were added for Japan as the global showpiece continues to evolve and adopt different sports. The cryptocurrency and blockchain space is similar in this regard. Many different working parts make for a colorful community both united and divided by their preferences of cryptocurrencies and blockchain platforms. Let’s ...

Cardano is close to attaining the title of a fully-fledged smart contracts platform following a critical upgrade in mid-July. The project’s founder Charles Hoskinson confirmed that they recently processed the sales of more than $10 million worth of non-fungible tokens atop their public ledger. Moreover, an NFT and DeFi Marketplace called the Spores Network, which raised $2.3 million in a fundraiser, said it would deploy its services atop the Cardano chain for lower transaction costs, lower carbon footprints, and higher transaction throughput. But the Ethereum rival’s growth as a project might not lead to higher adoption for its native cryptocurrency, ADA, at least according to an analysis shared by Peter Brandt, the chief executive of global trading firm&nbs...

Avalanche (AVAX) is replacing its months-old Avalanche-Ethereum Bridge, or AEB, with the aptly named Avalanche Bridge, or AB, according to a Medium post from the company. This newer bridge is allegedly fives times cheaper than the previous one and will act as a “growth engine” for the project’s future. The post notes that the AB is available to developers and users right now, and all previous assets from the AEB should carry over. This upgrade is occurring alongside the network’s wallet and explorer upgrades to bring “next-generation improvements” to all of its aspects. Related: Neon Labs deploys cross-chain Ethereum Virtual Machine on Solana Considering 59% of existing decentralized applications, or DApps, run on Ethereum, upgrades like these are likely necessary for future interoperabili...

Women looking for a way to enter a male-dominated space like crypto and blockchain may be drawn in by nonfungible tokens, according to Women in Blockchain Talks founder and host Lavinia Osbourne.  Though the ongoing pandemic has left people in many countries in financial trouble — whether by losing their jobs, being unable to physically go to banks, or other concerns — Osbourne told Cointelegraph the event may have pushed many women into crypto and blockchain once they were forced to move on from other careers. She said the recent surge and media coverage of nonfungible tokens, or NFTs, had made crypto “more relatable” to many people in the arts and other creative fields. “People look at NFTs and it’s like ‘it’s different — I don’t actually get the technology,’” said Osbourne. “When t...

Troubled global cryptocurrency exchange Binance continues moving fast in curbing services to respond to the ongoing regulatory scrutiny worldwide, partly shutting down derivatives trading. Binance officially announced Friday that it would suspend its derivatives trading across the European region, starting with Germany, Italy and the Netherlands. The company clarified that users in mentioned countries cannot open new futures accounts on Binance effective immediately. We’re continually evaluating our products and working with our partners to meet our users’ needs. Today we’re announcing that we plan to wind down our derivatives products offerings across the European region, commencing with the Netherlands, Germany, and Italy. — Binance (@binance) July 30, 2021 Binance added that the e...

Shares of cryptocurrency-friendly trading app Robinhood dropped more than 8% in its public Nasdaq debut on Thursday, marking one of the worst initial public offering (IPO) debuts of its size. Robinhood’s HOOD stock tumbled 8.4% below the IPO price in the company’s first trading session on July 29, dropping from $38 to $34.82. The company went public on Nasdaq at a $32 billion valuation to see its market capitalization fall to $29 billion after the HOOD stock ended the session below $35. According to data compiled by Bloomberg, the company’s first trading day marked the worst debut on record among 51 firms in the United States that raised as much cash as Robinhood or more. The company reportedly flipped the 2007 IPO by MF Global Holdings brokerage as the worst debut among qualifying firms, ...

Malaysia is the latest regulatory theater to come after Binance as authorities in the country have accused the exchange giant of continuing to operate in the country illegally. According to an announcement released on Friday, the Securities Commission (SC) Malaysia has served a public reprimand against Binance, calling for the exchange and all of its entities to cease operations in the country. The SC stated that Binance continued to operate in Malaysia despite previous warnings. Indeed, back in July 2020, Cointelegraph reported that Binance was not permitted to operate in Malaysia. At the time, the SC published an “Investor Alert List” containing several digital asset exchanges offering services in the country without due authorization from Malaysian regulators. Bina...

A new bill introduced by United States House Democrat Don Beyer of Virginia has proposed a far-reaching regulatory and legal framework for digital assets across the board. Entitled “The Digital Asset Market Structure and Investor Protection Act of 2021,” the bill touches on virtually all the important grey areas that continue to exist regarding cryptocurrencies in the U.S. context.  One of its primary goals is to establish statutory definitions for digital assets and digital asset securities, bringing the former under the purview of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) and the latter under that of the Securities and Exchange Commission. Both the SEC and CFTC would be tasked with providing legal clarity regarding the regulatory status of the top 90% of crypto ass...