crypto blog
‘Worst quarter ever’ for stocks — 5 things to know in Bitcoin this week
Bitcoin (BTC) starts a new week still battling for $20,000 support as the market takes in a week of severe losses. What felt all but impossible just weeks ago is now a reality as $20,000 — the all-time high from 2017 to 2020 — returns to give investors a grim sense of deja vu. Bitcoin dipped as low as $17,600 over the weekend, and tensions are running high ahead of the June 20 Wall Street open. While BTC price losses have statistically been here before — and even lower — concerns are mounting for network stability at current levels, with attention particularly focused on miners. Add to that the consensus that macro markets have likely not bottomed, and it becomes understandable why sentiment around Bitcoin and crypto is at record low levels. Cointelegraph takes a look at some major areas o...
Synthetix racks up over $1M in daily fees as SNX token value surges 100%
Layer-2 scaling solution Synthetix recently collaborated with liquidity provider Curve Finance to create Curve pools for sETH/ETH, sBTC/BTC, & sUSD/3CRV, allowing investors to cheaply convert synths such as sETH to Ether (ETH). Given the investors’ willingness to hold tokens instead of synths, the protocol racked up over $1.02 million in trading fees — overshadowing Bitcoin’s (BTC) daily performance by five times. Synthetix, Ethereum-based decentralized finance (DeFi) protocol, created a buzz across the crypto ecosystem after witnessing a sudden increase in trading activities and an unprecedented comeback of its in-house token, SNX, during an unforgiving bear market. Crypto fees of popular projects. Source: cryptofees.info As a direct result of the massive trading volumes, the SNX...
What decentralization? Solend approves whale wallet takeover to avoid DeFi implosion
On Sunday, the decentralized finance (DeFi) sector came under scrutiny again after DeFi protocol Solend put together a spur-of-the-moment governance proposal related to one of the whale wallets at risk of liquidation. The proposal, dubbed “SLND1 : Mitigate Risk From Whale,” was abruptly launched on Sunday without announcement and the vote closed with a 97% approval rating. The scandal comes on the heels of last week’s sudden layoffs from Coinbase and BlockFi, and the liquidation debacle of Three Arrows Capital. Adding to the melee of unexpected volatility and market sell-offs, the spur-of-the-moment alterations of a supposed decentralized autonomous organization, or DAO, show that crypto is not as “decentralized” as its users may have thought. Details of the proposal include the...
From games to piggy banks: Educating the Bitcoin ‘minors’ of the future
The crypto winter is here. It’s a trying time as prices grind down, but it’s the best moment to build and learn. For some Bitcoiners, the bear market is a time to plant trees or create memes. For those with kids, it’s a welcome recess used to broaden the minds’ of Bitcoin (BTC) minors. Cointelegraph spoke to the creators of popular Bitcoin-related games and educational tools to understand why teaching kids about sound money is critical, and some of the best ways of doing so. SHAmory, a portmanteau of SHA-256 (the cryptographic function that hashes inputs in Bitcoin) and memory, is among the best-selling Bitcoin games. Targeted at kids aged four and over, creator Scott Sibley shared that he had his “toddler in mind for both the creation of the game and book.” The Bitcoin mining g...
Top 5 cryptocurrencies to watch this week: BTC, SOL, LTC, LINK, BSV
Bitcoin (BTC) plummeted to $17,622 on June 18. This marked the first time in Bitcoin’s history that it has fallen below its previous cycle high. The United States Federal Reserve’s aggressive monetary tightening, a crisis at crypto lending platform Celsius and liquidity issues at investment fund Three Arrows Capital are creating a sense of panic among traders. Markets commentator Holger Zschaepitz said that Bitcoin has crashed more than 80% four times in history. That puts the current fall of about 74% within historical standards. Previous bear markets have bottomed out just below the 200-week moving average, according to market analyst Rekt Capital. If history repeats itself, Bitcoin is unlikely to stay at the current depressed levels for a long time. Crypto market data daily view. Source...
El Salvador president addresses bear market concerns with Bitcoin hopium
El Salvador introduced BTC as legal tender on September 7, 2021, when its market price was around $50,000. Ever since, Bukele’s government made significant returns on their initial BTC investments as Bitcoin rallied to its all-time high of $69,000, which was redirected to the country’s various infrastructure development initiatives. However, as tensions rise amid falling BTC prices, Bukele decided to share advice for fellow Bitcoin investors that may be concerned about the prolonged bear market. Nayib Bukele, the president who helped Bitcoin (BTC) gain legal tender status in El Salvador, addressed the rising concerns of investors as BTC began trading for under $20,000 for the first time in 18 months. I see that some people are worried or anxious about the #Bitcoin market price. My advice: ...
6 Questions for Annabelle Huang of Amber Group
We ask the buidlers in the blockchain and cryptocurrency sector for their thoughts on the industry… and throw in a few random zingers to keep them on their toes! This week, our 6 Questions go to Annabelle Huang, the managing partner at Amber Group, a global leading digital asset platform. Prior to Amber Group, I served as the Asia lead at AirSwap, a decentralized trading platform that enables peer-to-peer trading on the Ethereum blockchain. Before transitioning into digital assets, I advised private equity funds, U.S. corporates and hedge funds on structured solutions and risk management as an FX structurer at Deutsche Bank and Nomura in New York. My background in traditional financial markets, coupled with my experience in institutions and macro markets, has given me a unique vantage poin...
How a DAO for a bank or financial institution will look like
DAOs can provide several services for banks, including asset management, compliance and lending. Banks today are already using blockchain technology for things like payment, clearing and settlement, trade finance, identity and syndicated loans, according to The Financial Times. However, there are still many unexplored areas in banking where a DAO-based model might be useful: Fundraising In the crypto world, initial coin offerings (ICOs) are breaking down the barrier between access to capital and traditional services like capital-raising firms. Likewise, banks can use DAOs to raise capital from a wider pool of investors via ICOs. Loans and Credit Using decentralized technology in banking can eliminate the need for gatekeepers in the lending industry. DAOs provide more secure ways for people...
Bitcoin heads for dismal weekly close as BTC price rejects at $20K
Bitcoin (BTC) attempted to reclaim $20,000 as support on June 19 as bulls faced a $7,000 weekly red candle. BTC/USD 1-hour candle chart (Bitstamp). Source: TradingView $16,000 eyed for possible next move Data from Cointelegraph Markets Pro and TradingView showed BTC/USD rising from lows of $17,592 on Bitstamp before being firmly rejected at $20,000. Low-liquidity trading conditions had made for a grim weekend for hodlers as the largest cryptocurrency fell to levels not seen since November 2020. While recovering some losses, a sense of deja vu pervaded the market on the day. $20,000 had returned as resistance, this having formed an all-time high for Bitcoin for three years from December 2017 to December 2020. It was also the first time that BTC/USD had retreated under a previous halvin...
Russia seems to be preparing to mine Bitcoin with flare gas
The Russian government continues to establish links with major players in the cryptocurrency mining industry despite staying skeptical about legalizing cryptocurrency trading and payments. Russia’s state-owned gas giant Gazprom Neft has entered into a partnership with BitRiver, the largest crypto-mining colocation services supplier in Russia providing hosting services for major crypto mining operations. Gazprom will provide BitRiver’s partner data centers with electricity generated from the associated petroleum gas, the companies officially announced on June 16. As part of the collaboration, BitRiver will be developing a digital infrastructure based on the oil fields that Gazprom provides crypto mining services from the flare gas. Gazprom first deputy CEO Vadim Yakovlev emphasiz...
XRP price technical breakdown boosts chances of a 40% drop by July
Ripple (XRP) price stares at potential losses in the coming weeks as it breaks out of a “descending triangle” pattern, with its bias skewed toward the downside. Major XRP breakdown underway To recap, XRP started forming the technical structure after reaching $1.98 in April 2021, its second-highest level to date. In doing so, the token trended lower inside a range defined by a falling resistance trendline and a horizontal support trendline. On May 16, 2022, XRP broke below the triangle’s support trendline, accompanying a decent increase in trading volumes. The move confirmed the descending triangle as a bearish reversal indicator. Meanwhile, as a rule of technical analysis, XRP now risks extending its downside move by as much as the triangle’s maximum height whe...
BIS to launch market intelligence platform amid stablecoin, DeFi collapse
The Bank for International Settlements (BIS) Innovation Hub announced the launch of a new set of projects targeting various aspects of traditional and crypto payments — including a cryptocurrency market intelligence platform and security for retail central bank digital currency (CBDC). BIS’s cryptocurrency market intelligence platform will be launched under the Eurosystem Centre initiative, which aims to provide vetted data about crypto projects. One of the key drivers for the project’s commencement is the collapse of numerous stablecoins projects and decentralized finance (DeFi) lending platforms such as Terra (LUNA) and Decentralized USD (USDD). As explained in the official announcement: “The project’s goal is to create an open-source market intelligence platform to shed light on m...
