Business

“Ethereum’s ascent to the top of the cryptoverse seems unstoppable,” declared Nigel Green in mid-August, and it’s not hard to see why the deVere CEO thinks this. DeFi is on a tear, NFTs are mushrooming, Ethereum (ETH) remains more scalable than Bitcoin (BTC) and it also offers more uses including smart contracts. Moreover, Ethereum will soon move to a proof-of-stake (PoS) consensus algorithm, looking to be more eco-friendly than Bitcoin’s energy-intensive proof-of-work (PoW) protocol. “Ethereum is already years ahead of Bitcoin in everything but price and fame,” said Green earlier this year, adding: “There’s a real sense that 2021 is the year for Ether. Its time has come.” But, is it really a foregone conclusion that the world’s first, largest and best-known cryptocurrency is ready to reli...

Venezuelan authorities are on the lookout for a scammer accused of disappearing with 23.66 Bitcoin (BTC) worth $1.15 million from his clients’ accounts after faking his own kidnapping. On Aug. 29th, Douglas Rico, director of Venezuela’s Scientific, Criminal and Criminal Investigations Corps (CICPC) issued a statement asserting that 23-year-old, Andrés Jesús Dos Santos Hernández, was wanted by the country’s largest national police agency over charges of suspected money laundering and fraud. Authorities assert that Hernadnez likely staged the abduction, with his clients’ Binance accounts having been emptied since the Venezuelan’s supposed disappearance. According to Rico, the police believe Hernandez “simulat[ed] a kidnapping where his captors allegedly forced him to enter the Binance ...

Customers of leading U.S. crypto exchange Coinbase have spent the weekend panicking after the exchange mistakenly sent emails to users stating their two-factor authentication (2FA) settings had been changed. On Aug. 27, Coinbase accidentally sent the email to 125,000 of its customers, resulting in widespread public backlash. Coinbase took to Twitter on Aug. 29 to apologize for the mishap, stating: “We’re laser-focused on building trust and security into the crypto community so that the open financial system we all want is a reality. We recognize that issues like this can hurt that trust.” I got the reply and panicked someone accessed my account or made withdrawals. Immediately logged in and reset my password after verifying nothing happened. — AJ ‍⚾️l‍ (@AgedMcN...

Institutional inflows to altcoin investment products have continued to increase this past week, but the same cannot be said for Bitcoin. In its Digital Asset Fund Flows Weekly report on Aug. 30, institutional asset manager CoinShares identified overall inflows of $24 million to altcoin-based investment products. The capital flows mark the second consecutive week of inflows to altcoin funds, with investments into altcoin products increasing by 14.3% compared to last week’s $21 million. Ether was the favored asset among institutional investors, with ETH-based products posting a weekly inflow of $17.2 million. The report noted that products tracking Ethereum and other altcoins now represent 32% of the sector’s total assets under management (AUM) — just 3% shy of mid-May’s record of 35%. Carda...

The chief executive of crypto derivatives exchange FTX, Sam Bankman-Fried (SBF), has argued that derivatives are vital for the efficiency of the digital asset markets. In an interview with Forbes published Aug. 30, the crypto billionaire claimed that crypto derivatives are “misunderstood,” asserting that critics fail to recognise the vital role derivatives play in bolstering the liquidity and efficiency of markets. Derivatives refer to financial contracts that derive their value from an underlying asset or benchmark. Crypto derivatives in the form of futures, options, and perpetual swaps have attracted significant popularity in recent years. SBF described derivatives as “misunderstood,” adding: “People will note that derivatives trade more volume in crypto than spot, which is true. But tha...

There is an old proverb which says that history does not always repeat, but it tends to rhyme. If that holds true for Bitcoin (BTC), then a strong up-move may not happen in the month of September.  Bybit data shows that since 2013, Bitcoin has closed September in the red for six years and has managed a positive monthly close only on two occasions. The best performance was in 2016 when Bitcoin rose 6.04%. Daily cryptocurrency market performance. Source: Coin360 However, September’s poor historical performance has not stopped small and large traders from accumulating Bitcoin in August. Ecoinometrics reported rising account balances for addresses holding 1,000 to 10,000 BTC and for accounts that hold less than one Bitcoin. Will September’s poor historical record scare away the bulls...

Global business provider Zventus announced a new blockchain initiative on Monday titled “Mortgage Blockchain Lab.” The proposal is meant to collate the resources of several mortgage experts, technology firms and academic institutions to collaborate on blockchain research and development focused on the mortgage sector.  The California-based firm, whose product and service offering spans a broad business spectrum including business consultancy, human resource strategy and tech support, will work with the lab’s partners in this blockchain sandbox to trial and test new products and services. Early reports from the firm suggest the potential to reduce costs of loans for financial organizations exceeds 50% once the services are launched. Zventus President Angel Alban believes in the v...

The Ethereum (ETH) network continues to enjoy the status of being the top smart contract platform in the blockchain industry, but the competition is slowly gaining market share because high costs and network congestion are still challenges for the protocol.  One project that has been gaining traction in the month of August is Fantom (FTM), a layer-one smart contract platform that utilizes a directed acyclic graph architecture as a means to solving the problems of slow transaction speeds and high transaction fees. Data from Cointelegraph Markets Pro and TradingView shows that since hitting a low of $0.15 on July 20, the price of FTM has rocketed 500% to an intraday high at $0.90 on Aug. 30 as its 24-hour trading volume exploded by 1,250% to a record $1.26 billion. FTM/USDT 4-hour chart...