The Ukrainian government will be using the proceeds of sales from an online nonfungible token, or NFT, museum to restore artwork in the real world. According to a Friday announcement and information shared with Cointelegraph, Ukraine’s Ministry of Culture and Information Policy said the government’s Meta History Museum of War platform, aimed at preserving the timeline of major events in Russia’s war with Ukraine, raised 803.28 Ether (ETH) — roughly $1.3 million at the time — through NFT sales. The ministry said proceeds from the sales will go toward “the restoration of Ukrainian cultural institutions,” many of which have been damaged or destroyed by missile attacks from Russia. “During the six months of the war in Ukraine, the Russians destroyed hundreds of our museum...
Cryptocurrency exchange Zipmex has resumed withdrawals from its trade wallet after two days, but said transfers, deposits and trade will continue to be disabled from its Z Wallet. In a Friday announcement, Zipmex said its Thailand-based users could make withdrawals from its trade wallet, with the function expected to be “re-enabled this evening” for clients in other countries. The crypto exchange has had withdrawals disabled since Wednesday, citing a “combination of circumstances” beyond its control, including the recent market volatility. “Ever since the black swan events surrounding the crypto space Zipmex has retrieved the majority of our funds and assets that were historically deposited with our deployment partners and have been actively working to resolve the situatio...
It has been a volatile yet positive week for cryptocurrencies, as traders ignored the warnings from crypto winter veterans that there was more downside in store and jumped back into the market at the first sign of rising prices. Evidence for the reversal in sentiment can be found in the Crypto Fear & Greed Index, which has climbed into the fear zone after spending a record time in the extreme fear territory due to collapsing prices in May and June. Crypto Fear & Greed Index. Source: Alternative As for what sparked the rally out of extreme fear, a closer look at the timeline points to the announcement of the expected date for the Ethereum Merge, which came on July 15. Data from Cointelegraph Markets Pro and TradingView shows that, following the Merge date revelation, the ...
Bitcoin (BTC) recovered above $23,000 into July 22 as attention increasingly focused on the upcoming weekly close. BTC/USD 1-hour candle chart (Bitstamp). Source: TradingView BTC price needs to preserve at least $22,400 Data from Cointelegraph Markets Pro and TradingView showed BTC/USD finding renewed strength after briefly dipping towards $22,000. The pair traded in a critical zone for bulls on the day, with the 50-day and 200-week moving averages (MAs) still yet to flip from resistance to support. Analysts were holding out for the weekly candle close to determine the strength of Bitcoin’s latest uptrend which at one point delivered weekly gains of up to 25%. “To perform a reclaim of the 200-week MA as support, $BTC needs to Weekly Close above $22800,” popular trader and analyst Rekt Capi...
Taiwan’s Financial Supervisory Commission (FSC), a chief financial regulator, issued a note to the banking industry, indicating that they should not grant the virtual assets providers (VASPs) the status of merchant in operations with credit card holders. That means a de-facto ban on buying crypto with a credit card on the island. As the local media reported on Thursday, July 21, The Financial Supervisory Commission sent a letter to the Association of Banks in early July, reminding the members of the Association of Banks that virtual assets are highly speculative and risky, and the cash flow is complex and challenging to monitor transactions effectively. The regulator has also specified that credit cards are essentially consumer payment tools, not investment and wealth management or p...
As the blockchain space becomes more extensive, cybersecurity becomes a more crucial requirement for many. Because of this, PolySwarm CEO Steve Bassi argued that there is a need to leverage blockchain for cybersecurity. Bassi told Cointelegraph that while the awareness of blockchain technology and security is on the rise, the use of blockchain within cybersecurity is still in its early days. “Awareness about cyber security and crypto, especially over the last five years, increased more than any time during my professional security career,” he said. Despite the rise in awareness, the CEO noted that cybersecurity projects are still in the middle of trying to find applications of blockchain in the space. Because of the market gaps, Bassi noted that they created a project to use blockchai...
Singapore-based cryptocurrency exchange Crypto.com continues to aggressively expand its reach, becoming the latest crypto firm officially authorized to operate in Cyprus. Crypto.com has received regulatory approval from the Cyprus Securities and Exchange Commission (CySEC), the firm announced to Cointelegraph on July 22. The approval enables Crypto.com to offer a number of products and services to customers in Cyprus in compliance with local regulations. The new regulatory milestone comes in line with Crypto.com’s growing global presence as the firm has been actively expanding its operations, receiving approvals to operate in countries like Italy, Greece and Singapore. According to Crypto.com co-founder and CEO Kris Marszalek, the exchange currently prioritizes Europe as the main region fo...
BRISBANE, Australia — After two editions were wiped out by the pandemic, the first day Splendour in the Grass 2022 was sunk by Mother Nature. Inclement weather turned the site into a quagmire on the eve of this year’s show, held July 22-24 in Byron Bay, the picturesque beach town at the most easterly point of Australia. By midday on Friday (July 22), the grounds were deemed to be unmanageable. “In the interest of patrol safety and in consultation with all relevant emergency services,” reads a statement from Splendour organizers, “we have decided to err on the side of caution and cancel all performances on the main stages today only.” The reason: a “significant weather system” currently sitting off the country’s east coast which “may reach land later today, bringing more rainfall.” Statemen...
Caroline Pham, one of five commissioners with the United States Commodity Futures Trading Commission, or CFTC, has expressed concerns about the possible implications of a case the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, or SEC, brought against a former product manager at Coinbase. In a Thursday statement, Pham said the SEC complaint against former Coinbase product manager Ishan Wahi, his brother Nikhil Wahi and associate Sameer Ramani “could have broad implications” beyond the case, given its labeling nine tokens as “crypto asset securities” falling under regulatory body’s purview. The complaint alleged that the Wahis and Ramani engaged in insider trading by using confidential information Ishan obtained from Coinbase with regard to which tokens would be listed on the exchange, in ord...
Blockdaemon’s ETH ecosystem lead Freddy Zwanzger believes Ethereum will retain its leadership position in the crypto ecosystem over the coming years due to its utility as a smart contract platform and upgrades to the network following the Merge. Speaking to Cointelegraph during the Ethereum Community Conference (EthCC) this week, Zwanzger said: “It’ll continue to be a leader. I mean, obviously, the first and most important smart contract platform, and that’s not going to change.” Blockdaemon is an institutional-grade blockchain infrastructure platform that offers node operations and infrastructure tooling for blockchain projects. The Blockdaemon employee also took aim at so-called “Ethereum killers” — competing Layer 1 blockchains — which have tried to topple Ethereum fro...
Epic Games founder and CEO Tim Sweeney says his firm “definitely won’t” follow Minecraft’s developers in banning non-fungible tokens (NFTs). As previously reported, Minecraft developers Mojang Studios banned NFT integrations on July 20 as it believes the speculative aspect of NFTs, along with scarcity and risks of exclusion and scams supposedly associated with NFTs being against the game’s principles. The move was seen as highly controversial in the NFT community, while it has been met with praise by the cohort of crypto-skeptic gamers. Sweeney’s company is the creators of the widely successful battle royal game Fortnite, which is also seen as a Metaverse platform. While Epic Games isn’t necessarily pro-crypto or NFTs, the CEO said the firm isn’t looking to enforce any views on the s...