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Buterin and Armstrong reflect on proof-of-stake shift as Ethereum Merge nears
Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin and Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong believe that a gradual mind shift and important community contributions led to their backing of Ethereum’s upcoming move from a proof-of-work (PoW) to aproof-of-stake (PoS) consensus. The two industry titans joined Coinbase protocol specialist Viktor Bunin on the Around the Block podcast for an enlightening discussion centered on The Merge, which is set to take place in mid-September 2022. Buterin reflected on his history of considering proof-of-stake as a potential consensus mechanism for the Ethereum blockchain, which was initially met with skepticism due to a number of unsolved problems that made it seemingly unviable. According to the Ethereum co-founder, one of the project’s first blog posts in 2014 proposed an...
Georgia aims to adopt European crypto standards for Anti-Money Laundering
Georgia, one of the world’s most cryptocurrency-friendly countries, is moving to introduce new crypto regulations to pursue its ambitions to become a global crypto hub. Georgian lawmakers have prepared a new regulatory framework targeting digital business and cryptocurrency trading in the country, Georgian Minister of Economy and Vice Prime Minister Levan Davitashvili announced. Davitashvili said that a draft bill has been sent to the parliament and the amendments are expected to be passed in the autumn session, local news agency Business Media Georgia reported on Monday. According to the minister, the draft bill aims to coordinate local cryptocurrency laws with three major European Union directives, including the Payment Services Directive (PSD2), the Capital Requirements Directive (CRD) ...
Crypto volatility may soon recede despite high correlation with TradFi
After forging a minor recovery of sorts earlier this month, the crypto market has returned to exhibiting high levels of volatility over the past two weeks. This trend has pervaded the market since late last year, with the total market capitalization of the digital asset industry having dipped from an all-time high of $3 trillion back in November 2021 to its current levels of $1.08 trillion, representing a drop of over 65%. This then begs the question: How long is this volatility going to last? Especially since the macroeconomic conditions surrounding the global finance sector have continued to deteriorate steadily since 2020 — i.e., following the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. In this regard, Abdul Gadit, chief financial officer of automated digital asset trading platform Zignaly, to...
Eurozone hits record inflation of 9.1% amid gas and energy crisis
August marks the ninth consecutive month of rising inflation for the Eurozone at 9.1%. In July, the official inflation numbers landed at 8.9%. The Eurozone consists of 19 countries, including Germany, France and Belgium. This comes as the European Union (EU) faces a massive energy and gas crisis, largely as a result of the ongoing conflict in Ukraine. Current prices for daily necessities such as food, gas and electricity have soared across the continent. Over the last month, energy prices made up the largest price push, up by an annual rate of 38.3%, While food, alcohol and tobacco all rose by an annual rate of over 10%. Former EU member the United Kingdom also hit a 40-year-high inflation rate of 10.1% in July, as reported by the Organization of National Statistics (ONS). Eurozone countri...
‘We’re in a housing recession’
That’s a big deal because spending on housing accounts for as much as 18 percent of GDP, and the sector typically leads recoveries. So, even as the Biden administration touts the strength of the labor market and consumer spending holds up, a prolonged downturn in the housing market could deepen any potential recession on the horizon for the U.S. economy. As the primary way most Americans build wealth, homeownership has long played a central role in the economy. It took on additional weight during the pandemic, buoying the turbulent times as white-collar Americans stoked demand by seeking more spacious homes amid lockdowns and work-from-home policies. Record-low mortgage rates encouraged the buying surge, and homeowners rushed to refinance loans, giving them a steadier financial foothold to...
‘Everything’s on sale’: Reddit founder, Galaxy and Genesis execs raise big money
Reddit co-founder Alexis Ohanian’s venture capital (VC) firm Seven Seven Six (776) is looking to raise a crypto investment fund worth $177.6 million, while current and former executives from Galaxy Digital and Genesis are raising a $500 million fund of their own. 776’s crypto play According to an Aug. 29 report from The Information, 776’s fund “Kryptos” will launch in October to capitalize on the current bear market. It emphasized there are currently some bargain bin token discounts on the market that are ripe for the taking. “This is the best time to buy if you’re really long on the industry. It’s on sale. Everything is on sale,” said Katelin Holloway, Founding Partner at Seven Seven Six. The firm registered with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) to become an investment advisor...
Largest Ether mining pool Ethermine opens new ETH staking service
Ahead of the rapidly approaching Ethereum (ETH) Merge on Sept. 15, Ethermine, the world’s largest Ethereum mining pool has unveiled a new staking pool for users. Notably however, it is not available to U.S. miners The new service offers Ethermine members a chance to collectively stake their ETH and earn interest on top of their deposits. As little as 0.1 ETH ($159) required to enter. However the smaller the holding, the greater the fee. The platform is currently offering stakers an annual ETH interest rate of 4.43%. At the time of writing, 393 Ether worth roughly $626,000 at current prices has been invested into Ethermine’s new pool. Staking pools such as these hold significance as they offer competitive interest rates and a lower barriers of entry than solo staking as node operators...
ETH products grow in August as BTC products dip: CryptoCompare report
Ethereum investment products increased by 2.36% to $6.81 billion in assets under management (AUM) throughout August, outperforming Bitcoin products which saw a 7.16% drop off to $17.4 billion. The figures were contained in a new report by CryptoCompare. This was also reflected in the Bitcoin (BTC) and Ethereum (ETH)-product trading volumes, with Grayscale’s most notable Bitcoin product, GBTC experiencing a 24.4% drop in volume, while its Ethereum product, GETH actually increased 23.2%. CryptoCompare’s report suggeste the highly anticipated Ethereum Merge was the cause behind the change in trading volumes: Indeed, even at a more granular level, no Bitcoin products covered in this report saw AUM or volume gains in the month of August. We could be seeing interest move away from Bi...
Mystery of the whale wallet holding 50% of Axie Infinity’s SLP supply
For nearly a year now, a mysterious Axie Infinity wallet has been quietly amassing billions of Smooth Love Potion (SLP), the in-game cryptocurrency powering one of the industry’s most popular play-to-earn (P2E) crypto games. Today, the anonymous whale wallet now holds a little over 22 billion SLP — more than 50% the total circulating supply of the token. The problem? No one knows who it belongs to and what their intentions are. The wallet in question was brought to Cointelegraph’s attention by Axie Infinity player and tech co-founder Michael Benko, who first caught wind of this mysterious wallet on Aug. 25. Should we be worried? Benko told Cointelegraph he became concerned about the wallet given the amount of SLP it had gathered in a relatively short amount of time, which could poten...
Prosecutors Rest in R. Kelly’s Federal Trial in Chicago
Prosecutors rested their case Tuesday (Aug. 30) at R. Kelly’s federal trial in Chicago after presenting two weeks of testimony, including from four Kelly accusers, in their bid to prove the singer enticed underage girls for sex, produced child pornography and successfully rigged his 2008 state trial. Explore Explore See latest videos, charts and news See latest videos, charts and news Among the last prosecution witnesses was a 42-year-old woman who went by the pseudonym “Nia.” Taking the stand Tuesday morning, she was the fourth and final accuser to testify at the trial in Kelly’s hometown. A fifth accuser, who prosecutors had said during openings would testify, never did. They didn’t explain why. Through her testimony, Nia painted a picture of Kelly as a master manipulator who reeled...
Amid crypto winter, Nexo commits additional $50M to buyback program
Crypto lending platform Nexo has increased the size of its buyback program, giving the company more discretionary ability to repurchase its native token to boost interest payments or make strategic investments in the future. On Tuesday, Nexo disclosed that its board of directors had committed an additional $50 million to buybacks, building off the company’s initial $100 million repurchase program launched in November 2021. The approval green lights the discretionary repurchase of up to $50 million worth of NEXO tokens on the open market. NEXO is the platform’s native cryptocurrency, giving users the ability to earn interest and lock in lower rates for borrowing. The token currently has a market capitalization of $563.6 million and 24-hour trading volumes of $46.7 million, according to Nexo...
Crypto ‘cannot be partisan,’ says US lawmaker who scored negative on bipartisanship index: Report
United States House of Representatives member Tom Emmer has reportedly suggested that regulating and encouraging innovation in the crypto space should not be a political win for either Democrats or Republicans. According to an interview released Tuesday by Axios reporter Brady Dale, Emmer said many of his colleagues in Congress were treating cryptocurrencies as a risk that merited warnings, rather than an investment opportunity for the United States. The U.S. lawmaker added that encouraging figures like FTX CEO Sam Bankman-Fried to stay in the country will open more doors for residents rather than driving them away with regulatory uncertainty. Emmer, who has often pushed back against the “regulation by enforcement” approach some government agencies — including the Securities and Exchange C...
