crypto blog
NFT hype evidently dead as daily sales in June 2022 dip to one-year lows
Nonfungible tokens (NFT) took center stage in the year 2021 as artists, influencers, A-list celebrities and the sports industry finally came across a fan engagement tool that empowered the general public to cash in on their success. However, the hype around NFT did not manage to stand its ground as sales plummeted to one-year lows amid the ruthless bear market of 2022. The NFT boom, which started in early 2021, upheld its glory until May 2022 — supported by a healthy and bullish crypto ecosystem and positive investor sentiment. However, Bitcoin’s (BTC) struggle to hold on to its all-time high prices had an adverse impact across the crypto ecosystem. Number of daily NFT sales between June 2021 – June 2022. Source: NonFungible The NFT ecosystem recorded its worst performance of th...
African celebrities join degens on the journey to the moon
African degens are on a journey to the moon. With crypto, African people’s savings are hedged against insane inflation levels, they can find employment in Web3, and there is always the potential to make life-changing money that will transform the trajectory of their lives forever. People from various backgrounds are embarking on this journey to outer space. These crypto astronauts have, until recently, been hesitant to declare their involvement in the blockchain space. General sentiments around crypto were extremely negative due to the huge slew of scams disguised as cryptocurrency projects that swept through the continent, taking away hard-earned capital and confidence in anything branded with crypto. Regulation has not helped in this case either. In most African countries with signs of s...
Bitcoin will see ‘long bear market’ says trader with BTC price stuck at $19K
Bitcoin (BTC) failed to reclaim recent losses into July 2 as traders prepared for stagnant price action to continue. BTC/USD 1-hour candle chart (Bitstamp). Source: TradingView “Downtrend acceleration” still in force Data from Cointelegraph Markets Pro and TradingView tracked a limp BTC/USD as it chopped around the $19,000 mark into the weekend. The Wall Street trading week had finished without surprises, with United States equities practically stagnant — providing little impetus for crypto volatility. The U.S. dollar index, or DXY, fresh from a retest of twenty-year highs, ran out of steam to circle 105 points. U.S. dollar index (DXY) 1-hour candle chart. Source: TradingView Order book data from largest global exchange Binance showed BTC/USD caught between buy and sell liquidi...
DappRadar and LayerZero launch chain-agnostic staking token
DappRadar and omnichain interoperability protocol LayerZero have launched a new token to enable cross-chain staking across multiple blockchains and Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM)-compatible networks — a move designed to minimize fees and increase access to staking opportunities. The functionality for the newly launched RADAR token is provided through a set of smart contracts, DappRadar said. One of the contracts is known as the controller and the other as a proxy. The two smart contracts work together to enable the new staking mechanism. Requests made to withdraw or claim rewards are sent to the proxy smart contract. It communicates with the controller contract to determine if the request is valid. If the request is valid, the controller informs the proxy to release the tokens. DappRadar c...
Crypto Biz: Coinbase downgraded, 3AC deemed insolvent and Michael Saylor buys the dip
Coinbase has long been considered an important bellwether of the cryptocurrency market. Last year, when the company was expanding its workforce, adding institutional clients and issuing stock, crypto prices were hitting record highs. Now, in the depths of crypto winter, Coinbase finds itself slashing a fifth of its workforce, losing retail trading volume and contending with downgrades of its credit and stock. This week’s Crypto Biz dissects Goldman Sachs’ latest downgrade of Coinbase and also looks at the latest developments surrounding Three Arrows Capital. Goldman Sachs downgrades Coinbase stock to ‘sell’ After a promising debut on the Nasdaq stock exchange in April 2021, it has been nothing but down for Coinbase shares. The company, which once had a fully diluted market capitalization o...
Experts explain how music NFTs will enhance the connection between creators and fans
According to Mike Darlington, the CEO of Monstercat, an electronic music platform, and Jake Udell, the founder of social NFT platform Metalink, bear markets are a time to ideate and build new products. During this week’s episode of NFT Steez, a bi-weekly Twitter Space hosted by Cointelegraph analysts, both Darlington and Udell agreed that the future will be bright for crypto and especially for music NFTs. During the interview, Darlington and Udell explained the importance of researching projects with “sustainable teams” that continue to build despite the current market conditions and they encouraged investors to learn from the possibilities created at the height of the bull market. According to Darlington, music NFTs haven’t necessarily had made it as a “trend” yet, but he is h...
Hiring top crypto talent can be difficult, but it doesn’t have to be
Building a career or constructing a team in decentralized finance (DeFi) and crypto relies on finding talent, skills and the right attitude anywhere, in anyone. While this is no different than other industries, what makes ours unique are the much-needed, specialized skill sets combined with finding a good culture fit in an international and remote setting. Despite recent turbulence in markets, crypto companies continue building and growing. The increased energy and legitimacy in the industry over the years has many people wanting to make the switch from Web2 to Web3. This requires recruiters to sift through hundreds of applicants every month, but how do you find the right people who are enthusiastic about the ethos of the industry and excited to build impactful technology? Here are a few r...
June gloom takes on a new meaning in another 2022 down month
The market cap of Bitcoin (BTC) dropped another 33% in June, which is now beginning to numb the Twitter community. On the upside, many crypto traders who wanted out did so fairly aggressively from March to May. But, the less optimistic news is that the stagnancy in address activity may need to change for prices to get a running start on recovery. Unlike April and May, the altcoin pack didn’t struggle tremendously more than Bitcoin. BTC’s 33% drop was pretty middle of the road in terms of corrections. In a vacuum, crypto bulls would prefer seeing altcoins continuing to lag, pushing more traders back toward Bitcoin as a relative “safe haven.” Nevertheless, June was a tale of two halves. June 1-15 saw a massive 25% further downswing for Bitcoin. Comparatively, June 16-30 was looking up until ...
June roundup: Who’s hiring and who’s firing in the crypto space
Amid the recent volatility in the crypto market affecting investments and stock prices, many firms made significant staff cuts in the last month while others continued hiring. In June, major crypto exchange Gemini was among the first to reportedly cut 10% of its employees amid the bear market, saying conditions were “likely to persist for some time.” Coinbase and Crypto.com followed, announcing plans to reduce staff by 18% and 5%, respectively. Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong cited the so-called crypto winter as part of the reason for the cuts, but also stated the firm had been growing “too quickly.” Market conditions largely have not changed following many decisions to downsize, and other firms have been forced to make cuts. Crypto lending firm BlockFi announced it would be reducing staff by...
Ignite CEO announces departure after seven years
Peng Zhong, the chief executive officer of Ignite — formerly Tendermint and backer of the Cosmos ecosystem — has announced he will be leaving the firm. In a Friday tweet to his more than 20,000 followers, Zhong said Friday will be his last day at Ignite, where he has been working as CEO since May 2020. Prior to that, the now-former Ignite CEO was chief design officer at the firm’s Kuala Lumpur and Toronto offices since he started in 2015. It’s unclear what led to his decision to leave the company. Today is my last day at Ignite. Thank you for the camaraderie we shared as we built out this ecosystem. It’s been an honor to be a part of this team and this community. I will miss you. — Peng Zhong (@zcpeng) July 1, 2022 Ignite, formerly known as Tendermint, is a core contributor to the Co...
Price analysis 7/1: BTC, ETH, BNB, XRP, ADA, SOL, DOGE, DOT, LEO, SHIB
Bitcoin dropped 56.2% in the second quarter of 2022, according to crypto analytics platform Coinglass. That makes it Bitcoin’s worst quarter since the third quarter of 2011 when BTC price fell by 67%. A large part of the damage was done in the month of June when Bitcoin plunged 37%, the worst monthly drawdown since September 2011. It is not all gloom and doom for crypto investors. On June 29, JPMorgan strategist Nikolaos Panigirtzoglou said that the “Net Leverage metric” suggests that crypto’s deleveraging may be on its last legs. The eagerness of crypto companies with stronger balance sheets to bail out crypto firms in distress is also a positive sign. Daily cryptocurrency market performance. Source: Coin360 Another positive view on Bitcoin came from Deutsche Bank analysts. In a recent re...
Swappi (PPI) Announces First Exchange Listing on BitMart
New York, NY, 1st July, 2022, Chainwire PPI, the native token of Swappi, is now available for trading on global crypto exchange BitMart Swappi, an AMM-based decentralized exchange (DEX) deployed on Conflux eSpace, today announced its first exchange listing on BitMart. Swappi’s native token PPI is now available for trading on BitMart, a leading crypto exchange with millions of users globally. As the first exchange to list Swappi, BitMart lets users trade the PPI/USDT pair. Swappi was the first DEX to launch on eSpace, an EVM-compatible smart contract execution environment that allows developers to deploy and execute Ethereum-native dApps and smart contracts within the Conflux ecosystem. BitMart’s listing of Swappi (PPI) also marks the first listing of a Conflux eSpace asset. As an AMM-based...
