crypto blog
3 red flags that signal a crypto project may be misleading investors
Satoshi Nakamoto left a large pair of shoes to fill after releasing the code for Bitcoin (BTC) to the world, helping to establish the network, then vanishing without so much as a trace. Over the years, the crypto ecosystem has seen many developers and protocol creators rise in stature to become crypto messiahs for faithful holders who eventually have their best-laid plans end in catastrophe when the protocol is hacked, rugged or abandoned by whimsical developers. 2022 is hardly halfway complete and the year has already seen a particularly bad stretch of good intentions gone awry, which have collectively helped plunge the market into bear-market territory. Here’s a closer look at each of these instances to help provide insight into how similar outcomes can be avoided in the future. So...
Stake or DApp? With liquid staking, you don’t have to choose
Last summer, Polkadot made its own little bit of history after confirming the first five projects to occupy parachain slots on its canary network Kusama. Disparate blockchains that bolt onto Polkadot’s main Relay Chain for security, yet are otherwise independent, parachains represent a new way of doing business in blockchain, a maximalist vision aimed at enhancing scalability and governance while permitting the possibility of forkless upgrades. The five projects were Karura, Moonriver, Shiden, Khala and Bifrost. Fast-forward to today, and the first batch of parachains are set to expire, releasing over 1 million locked Kusama (KSM) tokens into the market. Given that KSM’s current supply is 9 million, basic economics dictates that the price will suffer, as tokens that were previously inacces...
Do you have the right to redeem your stablecoin?
Stablecoins are often discussed with regard to their “stability.” It is usually questioned whether a stablecoin is sufficiently backed with money or other assets. Undoubtedly, it is a very important aspect of stablecoin value. But, does it make sense if the legal terms of a stablecoin do not give you, the stablecoin holder, the legal right to redeem that digital record on blockchain for fiat currency? This article aims to look into the legal terms of the two largest stablecoins — Tether (USDT) by Tether and USD Coin (USDC) by Centre Consortium, established by Coinbase and Circle — to answer the question: Do they owe you anything? Related: Stablecoins will have to reflect and evolve to live up to their name Tether Article 3 of Tether’s Terms of Service explicitly states: “Tether reserves th...
Arthur Hayes to serve 2-year probation owning up to BitMEX’s AML mishap
Bringing closure to the long-awaited judgment related to the money laundering activities over the BitMEX crypto exchange, one of the four federal district courthouses in New York reportedly sentenced two-year probation and six months of home detention to founder and ex-CEO Arthur Hayes. Arthur Hayes, along with the other BitMEX co-founders — Benjamin Delo and Samuel Reed — and the company’s first non-employee Gregory Dwyer, pleaded guilty to the Bank Secrecy Act (BSA) violations on Feb 24, admitting to “willfully failing to establish, implement and maintain an Anti-Money Laundering (AML) program at BitMEX.” Indictment against BitMEX co-founders and employees for violating BSA. Source: Justice.gov Pleading guilty to supporting money laundering is a punishable offense, often carrying a ...
Swappi’s New Launchpad Feature to Bring IDOs to Conflux
New York, NY, 20th May, 2022, Chainwire Swappi, an AMM-based decentralized exchange (DEX) deployed on Conflux, is releasing a new feature that will give new projects launching on Conflux’s eSpace a platform to launch, fundraise, and seed their community. Dubbed Launchpad, the new feature will enable projects to conduct an Initial Dex Offering (IDO) on Swappi. Swappi Launchpad allows projects to conduct IDOs and hold both private and public sales, letting them set fixed token prices, token allocations, and sale times for their IDOs. While any Swappi users can participate in Swappi Launchpad, users who stake Swappi’s native token PPI will gain early access via private sales. Private Sale Through private sales, users can gain access to a limited private sale token allocation by staking PPI in...
FCA will ‘absolutely’ consider recent stablecoin depegging when drafting crypto rules: Report
Sarah Pritchard, the executive director of markets at the United Kingdom’s Financial Conduct Authority, or FCA, reportedly said the regulator will look at the recent volatility in the crypto markets when creating rules for the space in 2022. According to a Friday Bloomberg report, Pritchard said the financial regulator will “absolutely” take into account stablecoins like TerraUSD (UST) and Tether (USDT) depegging from the U.S. dollar in drafting regulatory guidelines with Her Majesty’s Treasury for release later this year. While the USDT price only briefly dropped to $0.97 on May 12, UST’s has fallen more than 93% since May 9 to reach roughly $0.06 at the time of publication. “It really shows at front of mind the really significant issues that exist here, both in terms of a well-func...
Florida Rep. Donalds introduces Financial Freedom Act companion bill in the House
Rep. Byron Donalds, a Florida Republican, introduced the Financial Freedom Act into the United States House of Representatives on Friday to prevent the U.S. Department of Labor from limiting the types of investments that can be included in Americans’ self-directed 401(k) retirement plans. The bill is the companion to Alabama Sen. Tommy Tuberville’s May 5 Senate bill. The Financial Freedom Act was introduced as a reaction to a U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) compliance report dated March 10 that raised objections to the inclusion of cryptocurrencies in 401(k) retirement plans. That report warned the department’s Employee Benefits Security Administration “expects to conduct an investigative program aimed at plans that offer participant investments in cryptocurrencies and related products, and...
OpenSea launches ‘Seaport’ marketplace protocol allowing NFT bartering
Nonfungible token marketplace OpenSea has announced the launch of a Web3 marketplace protocol for “safely and efficiently buying and selling NFTs.” In a Friday blog post, OpenSea said the marketplace protocol, dubbed Seaport, will give users the option to obtain NFTs by offering assets other than just payment tokens like Ether (ETH). According to the platform, a user “can agree to supply a number of ETH / ERC20 / ERC721 / ERC1155 items” in exchange for an NFT, implying bartering a combination of tokens as a method of payment. In addition, SeaPort users can specify which criteria — e.g. certain traits on NFT artwork or pieces part of a collection — they want when making offers. The platform will also support tipping, as long as the amount does not exceed that of the original offer. “OpenSea...
20% drop in the S&P 500 puts stocks in a bear market, Bitcoin and altcoins follow
Whoever coined the phrase “sell in May and go away” had brilliant insight and the performance of crypto and stock markets over the past three weeks has shown that the expression still rings true. May 20 has seen a pan selloff across all asset classes, leaving traders with few options to escape the carnage as inflation concerns and rising interest rates continue to dominate the headlines. Data from Cointelegraph Markets Pro and TradingView shows that the price of Bitcoin (BTC) taking on water below $29,000 and traders worry that losing this level will ensure a visit to the low $20,000s over the coming week. BTC/USDT 1-day chart. Source: TradingView As reported by Cointelegraph, some analysts warn that BTC could possibility decline to $22,700 based on its historical price performance fo...
Ethereum preparing a ‘bear trap’ ahead of the Merge — ETH price to $4K next?
Ethereum’s native token, Ether (ETH), continues to face downside risks in a higher interest rate environment. But one analyst believes that the token’s next selloff move could turn into a bear trap as the market factors in the possible release of the Merge this coming August. ETH to $4K? Ether’s price could reach $4,000 by 2022’s end, according to a technical setup shared on May 20 by Wolf, an independent market analyst. The analyst envisioned ETH moving inside a multi-month ascending triangle pattern, which comprises a horizontal trendline resistance and rising trendline support. Notably, ETH’s latest retest of the structure’s lower trendline could initiate a big rebound toward its upper trendline, which sits around the $4,000-level, as s...
Bitcoin ‘death cross’ data hints 43% drop due in BTC price bear market
Bitcoin (BTC) may fall more than 40% from last week’s bottom, new data warns as one analyst confronts what he says is now a bear market. In a series of tweets on May 20, popular trader and analyst Rekt Capital argued that BTC/USD should dive to near $20,000 to conform to historical norms. Death cross BTC price target now $22,700 Much debate has surrounded the so-called “death cross” constructions on the Bitcoin chart. These involve the declining 50-period moving average (50MA) crossing under the 200MA. Often in the past, such an event has triggered considerable price downside, this then going on to mark what Rekt Capital calls “generational bottoms.” “More often than not, the depth of a $BTC correction pre-Death Cross is similar to retrace depth post-Dea...
Terra’s amended revival plan would decrease the allocation for post-attack UST holders
After a grueling two weeks for the Terra community, the team behind the project announced revisions to their proposed revival plan for Terra (LUNA) and TerraUSD (UST). In a Tweet, Terra shared three major revisions to the proposed Terra revival and redistribution plan. These include increasing the genesis liquidity, introducing a new liquidity profile for pre-attack LUNA holders and decreasing the distribution to post-attack UST holders. 1/ We have published an amendment to Proposal 1623, incorporating the community’s feedback since its publication 2 days ago. Please see below for details https://t.co/liISBn3Baa — Terra Powered by LUNA (@terra_money) May 20, 2022 The announcement noted that pre-attack Anchor UST (aUST) holders, post-attack LUNA holders and post-attack UST holders’ in...
