crypto blog
Hashstack launches Open protocol testnet, offering under-collateralized loans
The DeFi lending and borrowing market has grown significantly in volume as new lending protocols continue to attract capital and NFT-backed loans become more popular. According to Dune Analytics, the top three platforms in terms of market capitalization are Aave (AAVE), Maker (MKR) and Compound (COMP). These platforms, however, still are facing issues when it comes to collateral requirements and volatile digital assets. Hashstack Finance is a DeFi platform whose crypto-native lending protocol, called Open, is trying to provide a solution to collateral requirements, specifically the over-collateralization of loans. Hashstack announced on Monday the release of its closed beta testnet that enables the opposite: autonomous under-collateralized loans. Built on the Harmony blockchain, ...
ENS dumps director of operations in condemnation of homophobic tweets
True Names Limited, the nonprofit behind distributed domain protocol Ethereum Name Service, announced it would be ending its contract with director of operations Brantly Millegan after many uncovered his previously posted anti-LBGTQIA tweets. On Feb. 6, the decentralized autonomous organization of Ethereum Name Service, or ENS, asked users to weigh in on what actions, if any, should be taken against Millegan in regards to a May 2016 tweet in which he said “homosexual acts are evil” and “transgenderism doesn’t exist.” The DAO said some had proposed suspending Millegan from his leadership roles at ENS, voting to remove him as a director of the ENS foundation, and asking him to step down from his position. Though the DAO did not officially vote on any resolution as of the time of public...
A quarter of people will spend time in the Metaverse by 2026: Research
By 2026, 25% of people will spend at least one hour a day in the Metaverse for work, shopping, education, social, and entertainment purposes, according to new research. The Feb. 7 report by technology research and consulting company Gartner found that in anticipation of this migration to the Metaverse, brands are already building the infrastructure to allow their users to replicate their lives digitally. According to Gartner Vice President Marty Resnick, brands will need to collaborate in order to unify the Metaverse as their users continue to demand virtual, interactive, three-dimensional experiences. He explained, “from attending virtual classrooms to buying digital land and constructing virtual homes, these activities are currently being conducted in separate environments.” He believes ...
Hashstack launches Open Protocol Testnet, the first-ever under-collateralized DeFi loans
Hashstack Finance, a decentralized finance (DeFi) platform, has launched the first-ever under-collateralized DeFi loans protocol called Open Protocol. The Open Protocol aims at disrupting the DeFi space by allowing DeFi participants to get up to 3X the amount of the collateral. The Open Protocol testnet marks a great milestone within the DeFi world where crypto investors are forced to deposit crypto assets worth more than the loans they are taking. It is also a significant accomplishment in Hashstack’s roadmap with the mainnet slotted for launch in coming weeks. The Open Protocol Open Protocol is an autonomous lending solution that allows users to access under-collateralized loans that are three times larger than the value of the used collateral. The ratio of collateral to loan is 1:3. In ...
Law Decoded: Tangible wins, new menaces and the global crypto taxation drive, Feb. 1–7
Every global event or major political crisis these days can trigger a digital asset-related conversation. As China welcomes the world’s top athletes to the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics, showing off ultra-high-tech facilities and sports infrastructure, some United States politicians have raised concerns over the Games’ potential to act as a booster to the digital yuan’s adoption. In neighboring Myanmar, the military government that had overthrown the nation’s elected leadership a year ago is now looking into launching its own digital currency, not to project economic influence but to improve the domestic payments system and the struggling economy more broadly. Below is the concise version of the latest “Law Decoded” newsletter. For the full breakdown of policy developments over the las...
Stop listening to celebrities for financial advice, says Binance Super Bowl campaign
From NFL players accepting their salaries in cryptocurrency and Tom Brady founding his own nonfungible token (NFT) marketplace to the NFL providing Super Bowl attendees with customized NFTs, the National Football League and the blockchain community seem to have embraced each other. As Super Bowl LVI approaches this Sunday, there is one thing fans can be sure to expect: crypto ads. One marketing campaign led by Binance, the largest global exchange by trading volume, warns fans about taking these anticipated crypto commercials to heart, and uses celebrities to make its point. Last week, Binance released its first video featuring Miami Heat forward Jimmy Butler who said that “I can give you advice on a lot of things. Your money isn’t one of them.” He war...
GALA gains 117% in February as P2E crypto gaming goes mainstream
The play-to-earn (P2E) gaming sector of the cryptocurrency ecosystem has been one of the most resilient sectors to the volatility and price declines seen in the past couple of months as gamers are jumping on the ability to earn income while playing tokenized videogames. One project that has seen its token price climb rapidly in the first week of February is Gala (GALA), a protocol focused on utilizing blockchain technology to give players control of the games they play and in-game items they acquire. Data from Cointelegraph Markets Pro and TradingView shows that the price of GALA climbed 117% after hitting a low of $0.177 on Feb. 2 to hit a daily high of $0.384 on Feb. 7. GALA/USDT 4-hour chart. Source: TradingView Three reasons for the rapid recovery in GALA price include the upcoming lau...
Major crypto firms and groups form coalition aimed at promoting ‘market integrity’
Several cryptocurrency exchanges and advocacy groups across different countries have banded together to form a coalition intended to fight market manipulation. In a Monday announcement, market surveillance firm Solidus Labs and exchanges including Bitstamp, Coinbase, BitMEX, and CrossTower said they would be launching the Crypto Market Integrity Coalition, or CMIC, asking all other companies involved in the crypto space to follow their example. According to the CMIC, members must pledge to encourage “a fair digital asset marketplace to combat market abuse and manipulation and promote public and regulatory confidence” in crypto. The group’s 17 founding members includes U.S.-based crypto advocacy group Chamber of Digital Commerce, United Kingdom-based self-regulatory trade association Crypto...
Shiba Inu leading Dogecoin in gains, SHIB up over 23% on the day
The crypto market is once again showing signs of a fresh run on Monday morning Almost all coins are trading in the green with decent gains in the past 24 hours Bitcoin and Ethereum trading on solid grounds Bitcoin is currently swinging at around $42,700 and based on market sentiment; it could make an attempt at $43,000 early this week. Ether cleared resistance at $3,000 at the start of the weekend on the back of an end-week rally. The native token on Ethereum is currently trading at $3,076.05, having gained 2.45% in the last 24 hours. Shiba Inu leads the meme-coin chart with over 23% gains Notably, Shiba Inu has posted the biggest swell among the top 20 crypto assets by market capital. SHIB has gained a whopping 23% in the last 24 hours and is trading at $0.00002792. The meme coin tanked t...
Swiss bank to offer Tezos staking, XTZ clears $4.00 for the first time in over two weeks
Tezos has been trading below $4.00 since 20th January Last week, one of Switzerland’s leading banks announced it is offering Tezos staking Tezos, like most of the crypto coins in the market, is trading in the green with approximately 22% of gains over the past seven days. The price of the crypto asset surged past $4.00 earlier today but has since retreated slightly to $3.98. The last time Tezos traded in this range was during the third week of January. The latest price development comes less than a week after CCRI ranked Tezo as one of the lowest energy-consuming networks. Tezos is only second to Polkadot in lowest energy consumption A report shared by the research firm Crypto Carbon Ratings Institute (CCRI) last week shows that Tezos consumes less electricity than the majority of th...
Crypto strategist says XRP could blow after its SEC brawl – Here’s his argument
A top analyst has predicted that XRP will ‘rocket’ after the pending legal issues with the SEC are resolved Credible Crypto, as he is known on his socials, predicted XRP to peak the $20 to $30 range in this cycle A largely-followed crypto analyst and trader has predicted that XRP will explode after the legal matters between Ripple Labs and the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) are settled. The pseudonymous crypto analyst, Credible Crypto, recently linked up with Thinking Crypto’s Tony Edwards and analysed a few coins based on their performance in the market, including the Ripple-affiliated XRP. Analyst advises getting in before its too late The crypto strategist observed that at the moment, XRP is looking bearish in the charts, and he expects its price...
Protesters migrate to crypto fundraising platform following GoFundMe ban
Truckers protesting the COVID-19 vaccine mandate in Canada have turned to Bitcoin-based crowdfunding platform Tallycoin, following a barrage of mounting political pressure from all sides that culminated in GoFundMe axing their “Freedom Convoy Campaign.” GoFundMe pulled the campaign and $9 million in donations on Friday in response to reports of violence, which it claimed broke its terms of service. Initially, donors needed to apply to have their funds refunded. However, following a flurry of criticism, the platform backtracked on Saturday, deciding it would automatically refund donors instead. Shortly after GoFundMe axed the campaign, a group of the organizers moved their efforts to Tallycoin, a crowdfunding platform built on the Bitcoin (BTC) blockchain. “Legacy financial infrastructure c...
