Business

Charity fundraising risks being left behind in the shift to online activity. But taking inspiration from the COVID-19 pandemic trends, and new payment technology, could open doors. Change comes whether you’re ready or not, but being ready means you can seize the opportunity. The past year has accelerated the pace of digital transformation dramatically — sure, personal contact was already moving online, and contactless payments were slowly replacing cash, but the pandemic did not so much push as shove the world faster and farther than anyone expected. This creates specific challenges for the nonprofit sector — and with those, some exciting possibilities. Related: Philanthropy: A missing catalyst of blockchain adoption Bring the message home Charity events and street fundraising — two major ...

Bitcoin (BTC) shot to new highs of $42,400 on July 31 in a surprise attack on range resistance which sellers failed to squash. BTC/USD 1-hour candle chart (Bitstamp). Source: TradingView Bitcoin seals 10 green candles in first since 2012 Data from Cointelegraph Markets Pro and TradingView showed BTC/USD gaining for a tenth straight day across exchanges, reaching $42,420 on Bitstamp. A subsequent cooling-off preserved most of the gains, with Bitcoin circling $41,900 at the time of writing, still up over 8% over the past 24 hours. In trading circles, talk focused on a rare performance for the Bitcoin daily chart — ten green candles in a row, after all, last occurred in 2012. Bitcoin has closed 10 straight green daily candles! pic.twitter.com/6FEG4CgqLl — Will Clemente (@WClementeIII) Ju...

Coming every Saturday, Hodler’s Digest will help you track every single important news story that happened this week. The best (and worst) quotes, adoption and regulation highlights, leading coins, predictions and much more — a week on Cointelegraph in one link. Top Stories This Week Amazon plans to accept Bitcoin payments this year, claims insider The crypto community was going wild at the beginning of this week after rumors circulated that Amazon was planning to accept Bitcoin payments.  The rumors started after Amazon posted a job opening for a digital currency and blockchain product lead on July 22. Four days later, an anonymous source within Amazon reportedly told London business newspaper City A.M. that the e-commerce giant was planning to start accepting Bitcoin (BTC) payments ...

Every trader aims to buy low and sell high, but only a few are able to muster the courage to go against the herd and purchase when the downtrend reverses direction.  When prices are falling, the sentiment is negative and fear is at extreme levels, but it’s at times like these that the inverse head and shoulders (IHS) pattern can appear. The (IHS) pattern is similar in construction to the regular H&S top pattern, but the formation is inverted. On completion, the (IHS) pattern signals an end of the downtrend and the start of a new uptrend. Inverse head and shoulders basics The (IHS) pattern is a reversal setup that forms after a downtrend. It has a head, a left shoulder and a right shoulder that are upside down and placed below a neckline. A breakout and close above the neckli...

Ether (ETH) price has been in a downward spiral ever since the Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin presented at the StartmeupHK Festival 2021. In a fireside chat session on May 27, Vitalik stated that several internal team conflicts caused the Proof-of-Stake migration to delay its launch. As reported by Cointelegraph, ‘Phase One,’ which introduces scalability through sharding, has been postponed to 2022. Furthermore, DeFi’s inherently decentralized nature might not be entirely beneficial because the sharding-style processing would need to run transactions through a relay chain. Ether price in USD at Coinbase. Source: TradingView It’s impossible to pinpoint the reason behind Ether’s sharp fall from its all-time high, but the surging gas fees certainly impacted investors’ expectations. Not o...

Cash may be king when it comes to purchasing Bitcoin (BTC), as recent data states that there has been a spike in crypto ATM installations during 2021, showing a 71.3% increase from Jan. 1, 2021, until the time of reporting. Specifically speaking, there are currently over 24,000 crypto ATMs located across the globe. Data further suggests that crypto ATMs are being installed at a rate of about 52.3 machines per day.  While growth is clearly underway for the cryptocurrency sector, the reason behind the surge in crypto ATMs may be due to a demand for using cash to buy Bitcoin. Alona Lubovnaya, director of product operations for Bitcoin Depot — a Bitcoin ATM operator — told Cointelegraph that more people from all walks of life are becoming interested in crypto, particularly ...

In the last few weeks, the Bitcoin (BTC) mining market has experienced a black swan event, leading to a lot of uncertainty and confusion surrounding the future of the market. This is why I felt it was right to give the public a quick update and explain why it’s a fantastic time for Bitcoin mining in the United States. Bitcoin miners are rewarded Bitcoin for securing the network and for each block they mine. As more miners participate, the difficulty rate increases and the reward for each individual miner’s security contribution decreases. And vice versa, when fewer miners are participating, the difficulty rate decreases and the reward for each miner’s contribution increases. Understanding this is key as to why this is an exciting time to get into mining. Related: A trade war misstep?...

Bitcoin (BTC) is gearing up for a comeback which should lead it to repeat classic bull run years 2013 and 2017, analysts are arguing. As $42,400 local highs appeared on July 31, narratives around the market are flipping back to a bullish Bitcoin “supercycle.” Bulls come out for 2021 close Bitcoin has been busy repairing the impact of the China miner rout since mid May, but last week’s price advances were stronger than most anticipated Related: Bitcoin open interest mimics Q4 2020 as new report ‘cautiously optimistic’ on BTC rally Rather than suffer a serious dip, BTC price action has held onto its gains, which at the time of writing total 23% in a week. What seemed all but impossible just seven days ago is now flavor of the month among an increasing portion of the an...

Beginning on August 2, 2021, German institutional funds will be able to hold up to 20% of their assets in cryptocurrencies, possibly setting the stage for wider mainstream acceptance of Bitcoin (BTC) and other crypto assets by the nation’s pension funds.  As Bloomberg reports, the new law alters fixed investment rules governing Spezialfonds, also known as special funds, which are only accessible to institutional investors such as pension funds and insurers. Spezialfonds currently manage about $2.1 trillion, or 1.8 trillion euros, worth of assets. Related: Hedge funds see the crypto market decline as an investment opportunity Tim Kreutzmann, who works for German investment fund association BVI, told Bloomberg that most funds will likely stay well below the 20% mark initially, explainin...

The Ukrainian government is moving forward with its central bank digital currency (CBDC) plans, as the National Bank of Ukraine (NBU) is now officially authorized to issue a digital currency. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has signed a  law titled On Payment Services, officially enabling the country’s central bank to issue a CBDC, the digital hryvnia, according to a Thursday announcement. The new law authorizes the NBU to set up regulatory sandboxes for testing payment services and instruments based on emerging technologies. The new legislation also requires close collaboration between the Ukrainian central bank and local startups in the payment market, taking into account the demand of the private sector, the announcement reads. Initially approved by the Ukrainian parli...

Bitcoin (BTC) and Ether (ETH) exposure has come to one of the world’s biggest automated investment firms. In a blog post on July 29, Wealthfront, which has $25 billion in assets, confirmed that it had added two Grayscale funds to its suite of investment options. GBTC buzz returns The recent rise in cryptocurrency prices has kept institutional products such as Grayscale’s various funds in the spotlight. Wealthfront, an example of a so-called “robo advisor” in the investments space, will now allow its clients exposure to the Grayscale Bitcoin Trust (GBTC) and Grayscale Ethereum Trust (ETHE). “Buying cryptocurrency can feel intimidating — it takes time and effort to research all of the options, set up a wallet, and monitor an additional account. That’s why we’ve ...

Binance has fully integrated the Polygon (MATIC) mainnet onto its platform, according to a press release. From now on, Binance traders can deposit and withdraw MATIC through their Binance accounts while also interacting with decentralized applications, or DApps, like Sushiswap, Balancer, Aave, and more.  This integration is meant to ensure that traders can utilize said DApps cheaply and efficiently without using the existing Polygon bridge. Related: Polygon announces scalable data availability infrastructure Avail While this announcement specifically focuses on the MATIC mainnet token, Binance also intends to support ERC20, BEP2, and BEP20 MATIC associated tokens. Binance marks Polygon’s latest integration, as the network has already worked with Huobi and Coinbase Wallet, among o...