Singapore’s largest bank, DBS, has announced another move to expand its crypto services while remaining cautious in complying with the financial authorities’ view that crypto assets are not suitable for retail investors in the country. On Friday, the bank disclosed its decision to expand crypto trading services on its digital exchange (DDEx) to approximately 100,000 “wealth clients who are accredited investors.” Investors who are considered accredited must meet certain criteria regarding their income, net worth, qualifications and understanding of financial markets. Caroline Malcolm, head of international public policy and research at Chainalysis, noted: “Singapore has long indicated that it views most crypto assets as volatile and as a result, not well-s...
On Sept. 26, the British pound hit a record low against the U.S. dollar following the announcement of tax cuts and further debt increases to curb the impact of a possible economic recession. The volatility simply reflects investors’ doubts about the government’s capacity to withstand the growing costs of living across the region. The U.S. dollar has been the clear winner as investors seek shelter in the largest global economy, but the British pound’s weakness could be a net positive for Bitcoin. The GBP, or British pound, is the world’s oldest currency still in use and it has been in continuous use since its inception. Fiat currencies are a 52-year old experiment The British pound, as we currently know, started its journey in 1971 after its convertibility with gold ...
The United Kingdom is in focus following the British pound’s fall to a new all-time low against the United States dollar. The sell-off was triggered by the aggressive tax cuts announced by Prime Minister Liz Truss’s government. The 10-year gilt yields have soared by 131 basis points in September, on track for its biggest monthly increase since 1957, according to Reuters. The currency crisis and the soaring U.S dollar index (DXY) may not be good news for U.S. equities and the cryptocurrency markets. A ray of hope for Bitcoin (BTC) investors is that the pace of decline has slowed down in the past few days and the June low has not yet been re-tested. Daily cryptocurrency market performance. Source: Coin360 That could be because Bitcoin’s long-term investors do not seem to be panicking. Data f...
According to a new analysis posted by Reddit user u/Warfared, Reddit Avatar nonfungible tokens, or NFTs, have seen erratic price performance in the past months. The analysis tracked the exchange of NFTs on popular NFT trading platform OpenSea.io. Among the top performers were the Fishy Foustling #1 and Mio Armor #1 NFT pieces, boasting a last sale price of 6 Ether (ETH) and 5 ETH, respectively. The NFTs were airdropped to qualified users three months prior who had high amounts of karma points on the namesake social platform. Taken together, items in the aforementioned two collections have surpassed 100 ETH in cumulative trading volume. However, not all individual collectibles or collections are witnessing similar levels of price craze. Four exhibits, Meme Team, Drip Squad, Aww Friend...
Singapore, Singapore, 26th September, 2022, Chainwire DeFiChain, the world’s leading blockchain on the Bitcoin network dedicated to bringing decentralized financial applications and services to everyone, today announces the listing of its DFI token on Gate.io, one of the world’s leading cryptocurrency exchanges. This is a major step in DeFiChain’s mission to make DFI accessible to investors worldwide. Gate.io is one of the world’s biggest exchanges and supports the most cryptocurrencies of any exchange. The DFI token (ERC-20 version) will start trading on Gate.io at 10am UTC on September 26th. Initially, it will trade against USDT, though Gate.io could bring a DFI-BTC pair as well in the near future. The native version of DFI will become available on the platform in late October. Buying th...
The Great British pound sterling has fallen to the lowest level ever against the United States dollar. In a flurry of overnight trading activity, the pound reached lows of 1 pound = $1.04. It lost 5% of its value in a spiral. The United Kingdom’s sovereign currency, the pound sterling, is the world’s oldest currency that is still in use today. It is currently clinging above USD-pound parity, since regaining $.03 cents, bouncing to 1 pound = $1.07. Source: Google The pound has been on a steady decline against the USD since 2007 and the subsequent financial crisis. While it has lost 20% of its value this year, it has lost half of its value against the dollar over the past 20 years. Deputy Leader for the Labour Party, the government’s opposition party, was quick to compare the pou...
Charles Hoskinson, the founder of Cardano and co-founder of Ethereum blockchain, got into a war of words with Ethereum developers on the implementation of proof-of-stake (PoS) consensus via Merge. On Sunday, Web3 investor Evan Van Ness shared an unpopular opinion claiming that the Ethereum Merge could have been shipped earlier. Vitalik Buterin, the co-founder of Ethereum, agreed to Van Ness’s comments and said they should have implemented NXT-like chain-based PoS. Hoskinson joined in the conversation claiming the Ethereum developers should have implemented snow white protocol instead to ensure a faster migration to proof-of-stake (PoS) consensus. You should have just implemented snow white with Elaine’s help. It would have saved you a heck of a lot of pain and effort. — Charles Hoski...
To support the Terra community’s efforts to revive the Terra LUNA Classic (LUNC) token, crypto exchange Binance announced an off-chain burning mechanism last week. However, after receiving mixed reactions from community members, the exchange revised its burning approach. On Sept. 23, Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao wrote that the exchange will create an optional 1.2% tax when trading LUNC. Zhao added that they will roll out the 1.2% tax for all LUNC trading if traders who opt-in to pay the tax reach 50% of the total LUNC trading volume on the exchange, leaving the decision to users. However, days after the post, Zhao laid out the flaws of their previous plan. Because of this, Binance announced a revised method to support the revival of LUNC. According to Zhao, the exchange will now comple...
The market capitalization of USD Coin (USDC), a stablecoin issued by U.S.-based payment tech firm Circle, has dropped below $50 billion for the first time since January 2022. On the weekly chart, USDC’s market cap, which reflects the number of U.S. dollar-backed tokens in circulation, fell to $49.39 billion on Sep. 26, down almost 12% from its record high of $55.88 billion, established merely three months ago. USDC versus USDT weekly market cap chart. Source: TradingView In contrast, the market cap of Tether (USDT), which risked losing its top stablecoin position to USDC in May, crossed above $68 billion on Sep. 26, albeit still down 17.4% from its record high of $82.33 billion in May 2022. The divergence between USDT and USDC shows investors’ renewed preference...
Interpol has reportedly issued a “Red Notice” to law enforcement worldwide for the arrest of Terraform Labs co-founder Do Kwon. South Korean prosecutors in Seoul on Monday told Bloomberg the international policing organization issued the notice in response to charges Kwon faces in South Korea related to the collapse of the Terra ecosystem. The news comes only a week after South Korean prosecutors reportedly asked Interpol to issue a “Red Notice” for Kwon on Sept. 19. A Red notice is a “request to law enforcement worldwide to locate and provisionally arrest a person pending extradition, surrender, or similar legal action” according to the Interpol website. It also comes less than two weeks after South Korean authorities issued an arrest warrant for Kwon and five other associates for alleged...
Non-fungible token (NFT) app developers and others have balked at a decision by tech giant Apple to impose a 30% commission on NFTs sold through apps on its marketplace, effectively putting NFT purchases in the same boat as regular in-app purchases. According to a Friday report from The Information, the smartphone company is now allowing NFTs to be bought and sold through apps listed on its marketplace but imposes its standard commission on in-app purchases of 30% — similar to that imposed by Android’s app store Google Play. The commission rate has however been slammed by some for being “grotesquely overpriced” — particularly when compared to standard NFT marketplace commissions, which are around 2.5%. Tech blogger Florian Mueller called Apple’s “app tax” on NFT sales “abusive but consiste...