crypto blog
Telegram founder suggests ‘NFT-like smart contracts’ to auction usernames
Pavel Durov, the founder of encrypted messaging app Telegram, has floated the idea of a marketplace that could utilize “NFT-like smart contracts” to auction highly-sought after usernames. Durov made the suggestion after the “success” of domain name auctions by The Open Network (TON), a layer-1 blockchain originally designed by the Telegram team. The blockchain project launched the TON DNS service enabling users to assign human-readable names to crypto wallets, smart contracts, and websites in mid-July. In a message to his personal Telegram group named “Durov’s Channel” on Aug. 23, he noted that he was “really impressed by the success of the auction TON recently conducted for their domain/wallet names.” “Imagine how successful Telegram with its 700 million users could be if we put res...
Bitcoin won’t hedge inflation until it hits 1B wallets: Scaramucci
Skybridge Capital CEO Anthony Scaramucci believes that while Bitcoin continues to be an attractive asset, it has not reached the “wallet bandwidth” that is required for it to be considered an inflation hedge. Speaking on CNBC’s Squawk Box on Aug 22. the global investment management CEO said Bitcoin was still too much of “an early adopting technical asset” which would need to be held in around a billion wallets before it would begin to act as a hedge against inflation. “Until you get into the billion, billion-plus zone, I don’t think you’re going to see Bitcoin as an inflation [hedge] as it’s still an early adopting technical asset.” While the exact number of Bitcoin wallets in the world is unknown, estimates place this number at approximately 200 million. In its earlier years, some t...
Paypal adds to list of crypto heavy hitters on the TRUST network
Crypto-friendly digital payments giant Paypal has been added to the Travel Rule Universal Solution Technology (TRUST) network, joining a host of big names in crypto that have moved to comply with digital asset travel rules. The announcement comes two months after the payments giant rolled out infrastructure enabling users to transfer, send and receive digital assets between PayPal and other wallets and exchanges in June this year. Prior to that, users were only able to buy and sell crypto within Paypal following the firm’s initial jump into the sector in October 2020. Now you can easily use your crypto with PayPal. Bring it into PayPal and send some to friends and family—all in one place. https://t.co/k24TVHoSYh pic.twitter.com/v0CeV9dNXa — PayPal (@PayPal) August 15, 2022 TRUST was launch...
Crypto trader doubles portfolio in a month betting against Jim Cramer
Twitter-famous crypto trader AIgod has brought a smile to the community after announcing he’s doubled his “Inverse Cramer” portfolio in just a month by “simply” inverse trading against CNBC’s Mad Money host Jim Cramer. In his latest tweet on Aug. 22, the trader, who became famous on Twitter for pre-empting the fall of Terra Luna’s collapse earlier this year, said he has just flipped to a long position on his inverse Jim Cramer account following a bearish tweet from Cramer about the state of the Nasdaq. Was a bit late but flipped long on the Cramer account, Jim bearish on Nasdaq is good indicator for crypto Trade on decentralized derivatives here: https://t.co/z7XBNybcRr (if you use leverage do it responsibly) https://t.co/yr1iDSzROf pic.twitter.com/u9QdlbIFcb — Algo...
Fed teases master accounts for crypto banks: Law Decoded, Aug. 15-22
Last week, the United States Federal Reserve Board turned its eye to banks and crypto, making (or promising to make) several clarifications, one of them pretty long-awaited. It announced that the final version of guidelines for reserve banks to access Reserve Bank master accounts and services is ready. For crypto, these guidelines hold a prospect of “the most stringent review,” to which non-federally insured institutions that do not have a holding company subject to Fed oversight would be exposed. It is still unclear whether the crypto banks will finally get access to master accounts under the new guidelines and how long they shall wait for it. At the same time, the Fed made itself clear that the traditional banks that intend to deal with crypto assets couldn’t do it without a closer...
NFT lending protocol Bend DAO proposes emergency changes amid credit crisis
On Monday, developers of decentralized nonfungible tokens (NFTs) borrowing and lending protocol Bend DAO proposed new emergency measures in an attempt to stabilize the ecosystem. The same day, it was revealed that the project had just as little as 15 wrapped Ether (wETH) worth $23,715 to pay back lenders. Approximately 15,000 ETH was lent using the mechanism. To save the protocol from a credit crisis, the Bend Dao dev team suggested that the liquidation threshold for collateral would be constrained to 70% of the loan value, down from 85%. Next, the auction period for NFTs on its platform would be reduced from 48 to four hours. Then, the requirement for the minimum bid price of NFTs on Bend DAO to be pegged to 95% of the floor price on popular digital collectibles trading platform Ope...
Data shows Bitcoin and altcoins at risk of a 20% drop to new yearly lows
After the rising wedge formation was broken on Aug. 17, the total crypto market capitalization quickly dropped to $1 trillion and the bulls’ dream of recouping the $1.2 trillion support, last seen on June 10, became even more distant. Total crypto market cap, USD billion. Source: TradingView The worsening conditions are not exclusive to crypto markets. The price of WTI oil ceded 3.6% on Aug. 22, down 28% from the $122 peak seen on June 8. The United StatesTreasuries 5-year yield, which bottomed on Aug. 1 at 2.61%, reverted the trend and is now trading at 3.16%. These are all signs that investors are feeling less confident about the central bank’s policies of requesting more money to hold those debt instruments. Recently, Goldman Sachs chief U.S. equity strategist David Ko...
South Korean financial majors want to create virtual assets exchange in 2023: Report
Samsung Securities is among seven large South Korean securities companies that have applied for government approval to create a virtual assets exchange, according to a report in South Korean publication Newspim. The companies aim to create a corporation to open an exchange in the first half of next year. Newspim quoted an unidentified executive as saying that discussions on the project are now being finalized. According to the local coverage, Samsung Securities had been studying ways to develop and operate a securities token trading platform but was unable to recruit the necessary personnel to proceed last year. Mirae Asset Consulting, an affiliate of Mirae Asset Securities, South Korea’s largest investment banking and stock brokerage by market cap, is hiring personnel for cryptocurre...
Hollywood producer of The Gentlemen Ivan Atkinson partners with Light Cycle on Caduceus Blockchain
London, UK, 22nd August, 2022, Chainwire Ivan’s One Van Films will adopt NFTs & DAO for future productions seeing loyal fans rewarded through utilities such as behind-the-scenes access and more Ivan Atkinson’s acclaimed film production company One Van Films is partnering with 3D Metaverse Platform Light Cycle on the Caduceus Ecosystem for a pioneering new NFT and DAO project that rewards loyal fans and supporters by creating an eco-economy providing a twist on the traditional challenges within the film industry. One Van Films is an independent British film production company based in London and founded by celebrated Hollywood story writer and producer Ivan Atkinson. His recent work includes The Gentleman (2019), Wrath of Man (2020), and Aladdin (2019) and he is famed for having worked ...
Ethereum advances with standards for smart contract security audits
The Ethereum ecosystem continues to witness a flurry of activity that has individuals and organizations deploying token contracts, adding liquidity to pools and deploying smart contracts to support a wide range of business models. While notable, this growth has also been riddled with security exploits, leaving decentralized finance (DeFi) protocols vulnerable to hacks and scams. For instance, recent findings from crypto intelligence firm Chainalysis show that crypto-related hacks have increased by 58.3% from the beginning of the year through July 2022. The report further notes that $1.9 billion has been lost to hacks during this timeframe — a figure that doesn’t include the $190 million Nomad bridge hack that occurred on August 1, 2022. Although open source code may be beneficial for...
Metaverse is a key factor in long-term NFT success, says new research
A new report from Juniper Research analyzed the trajectory of the nonfungible token (NFT) market over the next five years. According to the study, global transactions related to NFTs will escalate from 24 million in 2022 to nearly 40 million by 2027. One of the top catalysts to push NFT adoption will be those linked to metaverse use cases, according to the study. This niche of NFTs will be the fastest growing in the next five years. Metaverse-related NFTs will experience an increase in transactions from 600,000 transactions in 2022 to 9.8 million by 2027. A good indicator for brands such as Gucci and Adidas, which have already adopted the technology for wearables in the digital universe, this data shows that consumers want their digital assets to have value beyond the monetary. This ...
Voyager creditors oppose $1.9M employee retention proposal
Voyager Digital Holdings’ committee of unsecured creditors has filed a motion to object to the firm’s proposal to keep its employees by paying them monetary awards for staying in the company. On August 2, Voyager Digital filed a motion to the United States Bankruptcy Court in the Southern District of New York to approve the Key Employee Retention Plan (KERP), which aims to distribute $1.9 million to 38 key employees whdeemed to be crucial to the operations of the exchange. However, the exchange’s creditors disagreed with the proposal. In a motion filed on Friday, the creditors laid out their objections to the proposed KERP and its related relief grants. They wrote: “At a time when thousands of creditors struggle to pay basic personal expenses due to the Debtors’ flawed business...
