crypto blog
Bitcoin holds onto 10% gains ahead of crucial Fed rate hike comments
Bitcoin (BTC) held onto fresh upside on Tuesday after a resurgent stock market took the largest cryptocurrency above $37,500. BTC/USD 1-hour candle chart (Bitstamp). Source: TradingView. Fed may spark fresh volatility Data from Cointelegraph Markets Pro and TradingView showed BTC/USD trading above $36,000 on Tuesday, with maximum 24-hour gains totaling 14% versus Monday’s floor. Bitcoin’s correlation to equities remained in focus ahead of a fresh Wall Street open and key information regarding interest rates from the United States Federal Reserve. The Fed’s Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) is set to meet Wednesday, and any news regarding interest rates could have instant repercussions for both traditional and crypto markets. “Tomorrow’s FED ...
Bithumb users have less than 48 hours to whitelist private wallet
The South Korean digital assets trading platform will block withdrawals to wallets that are not verified starting Thursday In an announcement shared yesterday, Bithumb exchange detailed that it is taking more steps towards managing crypto withdrawal services to third-party and private wallets. The exchange noted that starting January 27th, unverified private wallet owners will no longer be able to authorise crypto withdrawals to their wallets successfully. The affected wallets include MetaMask and MyEtherWallet. Bithumb follows Coinone, more set to conform Bithumb is one of the most popular crypto exchanges in the region and one of four approved to offer crypto trading services. The affected users are required to validate their wallets with their Bithumb accounts, so they are ‘allowl...
More evidence game devs hate NFTs and crypto
A recent survey revealed that most game developers and their studios have no interest in developing or working with nonfungible tokens (NFTs) or crypto payments. The survey released by the Game Developers Conference on Jan. 21 titled State of the Game Industry 2022 polled 2,700 game developers on their level of interest in NFTs and cryptocurrency. Results were less than favorable for gamers themselves, who have shown great interest in NFTs. A resounding majority of respondents indicated that their studio is ‘not interested’ in cryptocurrency as a payment tool (72%) and is ‘not interested’ in NFTs (70%). Only 1% responded that they were already developing NFTs or already using cryptocurrency as a payment tool. Of the 14 comments on NFTs and crypto from developers published in the surv...
Meta unveils Metaverse AI supercomputer, claims it will be world’s fastest
Facebook’s parent company Meta says that its newly-created artificial intelligence (AI) “Research SuperCluster” (RSC) will “pave the way” towards building the Metaverse. The social media giant said that it believes RSC is already one of the fastest supercomputers in the world and will snag the top spot when it’s fully operational in mid-2022, according to a Jan, 24 blog post unveiling the hardware. “Developing the next generation of advanced AI will require powerful new computers capable of quintillions of operations per second,” wrote the company. “Ultimately, the work done with RSC will pave the way toward building technologies for the next major computing platform — the metaverse, where AI-driven applications and products will play an important role.” CEO Mark Zuckerberg added in a Jan....
Bank of America says stablecoin adoption and CBDC is ‘inevitable’
It appears that the U.S. will finally be moving forward to create its own central bank digital currency (CBDC) according to the Bank of America. Bank of America crypto strategists Andrew Moss and Alkesh Shah wrote in a Jan. 24 note that CBDCs “are an inevitable evolution of today’s electronic currencies,” according to a Bloomberg report. The analysts wrote: “We expect stablecoin adoption and use for payments to increase significantly over the next several years as financial institutions explore digital asset custody and trading solutions and as payments companies incorporate blockchain technology into their platforms.” Meanwhile, a Jan. 20 report titled “Money and Payments: The U.S. Dollar in the Age of Digital Transformation” from the Federal Reserve Bank (FRB) weighed up the benefits and...
Green shoots? Institutional crypto funds see first inflows in 5 weeks
After five weeks of constant outflows, institutional investment is finally trickling back into crypto funds with BTC the asset of choice and ETH falling out of favor. In its weekly Digital Asset Fund Flows report published on Jan. 24, crypto investment firm CoinShares observed inflows for some institutional products. It is the first time in five weeks that there has been a net positive inflow as $14.4 million re-entered the space with investors buying the dip. The researchers reported that these inflows came during a period of significant price weakness, adding that this suggests investors “are seeing this as a buying opportunity” at current price levels. Capital continued to flow out from CoinShares own BTC fund, however, 21Shares and ProShares registered minor gains. Most of the inflows ...
Top 5 NFT tokens in 2022 to watch out for
Non-fungible tokens (NFTs) have taken the crypto world by storm and have seen a tremendous level of growth throughout 2021. Due to this high level of success, a variety of different collection-based projects or limited-run projects arose, which essentially limited the collection of NFTs within their respective platform to a specific number. For example, there can only ever be 10,000 CryptoPunks that can ever exist, and this scarcity is what leads to their value. Many other NFT projects and NFTs, as a result, have found their way into Metaverse projects, which lead to their eventual increase in utility. Ultimately, all of this has contributed to the growth of both the industry as well as the tokens in question. As the NFT industry evolves, there will be a consistent stream of new projects a...
Binance Smart Chain cedes third-place ranking to Fantom decentralised ecosystem
Fantom ranks only behind Terra and Ethereum ecosystems in total value locked as per latest DeFi market data Binance Smart Chain, Solana and Avalanche gave way to Fantom as the blockchain rose to third spot in total value locked (TVL). Gaining more than 60% in 48 hours, Fantom’s DeFi ecosystem leapfrogged Binance Smart Chain (BSC) earlier today with $12.4 billion in TVL ($500 million more than the BSC). The growth of the network has been propelled by activity in its 129 protocols, with dApps such as Matrixswap and Chainstack heavily using the chain in their expansion efforts. At the time of press, the TVL of the Fantom blockchain is $11.97 billion, up 49.5% in the last seven days. Data from DefiLlama indicates that Fantom controls 6.25% of the TVL in DeFi compared to BSC’s 6.07%...
$75M Blockchain Founders Fund II backs portfolio of P2E and Web3 projects
Singapore-based Blockchain Founders Fund has launched a new venture capital fund to support emerging projects in the cryptocurrency, metaverse and Web3 sectors, offering further evidence that investors are still keen to back major growth trends in the digital asset market. Blockchain Founders Fund II, also known as BFF II, has raised $75 million from various investors across the blockchain and crypto industry, including NEO Global Capital, Appworks, Baksh Capital, Octava and The Sandbox chief operating officer Sebastien Borget. BFF II has already deployed capital across 11 projects, including a layer-two derivatives exchange, several play-to-earn games and a DeFi protocol. BFF II is focused primarily on crypto, blockchain, Web3 and metaverse projects. The fund is also prepared to off...
Analysts say Bitcoin’s bounce at $36K means ‘it’s time to start thinking about a bottom’
Bears remain in full control of the cryptocurrency market on Jan. 24 and to the shock of many, they managed to pound the price of Bitcoin (BTC) to a multi-month low at $32,967 during early trading hours. This downside move filled a CME futures gap that was left over from July 2021. Data from Cointelegraph Markets Pro and TradingView shows that the $36,000 level was overwhelmed in the early trading hours on Monday, leading to a sell-off that dipped below $33,000 before dip buyers arrived to bid the price back above $35,500. BTC/USDT 1-day chart. Source: TradingView Here’s a look at what several analysts are saying about the macro factors at play in the global financial markets and what to be on the lookout for in the months ahead. “Rate hikes don’t kill risk assets” F...
House members call for an end to lawmakers trading stocks — is crypto next?
Congresspeople currently HODLing or actively trading in crypto may have to stop doing so while in office if recent pushes to ban lawmakers from investing in stocks gain enough support. In a Monday letter addressed to Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, 27 members of the U.S. House of Representatives called for action “to prohibit members of Congress from owning or trading stocks.” Among the bipartisan group of lawmakers who signed onto the letter was Illinois congressperson Bill Foster, who is also a member of the Congressional Blockchain Caucus. In addition, the letter seems to have support from politicians diametrically opposed on major issues like Progressive Democrat Rashida Tlaib and Republican Matt Gaetz, who is reportedly under investigation by the Justice Depar...
There’s a browser plugin that autoblocks Twitter NFT profile pictures
That was quick. Within 24 hours of the launch of the Twitter nonfungible token, or NFT, profile pictures for iOS update, a github contributor called mcclure has coded up and shared a browser extension that automatically blocks Twitter accounts using an NFT profile picture. The program called NFTBlocker blocks paying subscribers of the Twitter Blue for iOS service who choose to display an NFT as their profile picture. The extension works with Chrome and Firefox on desktop and while an early prototype, “future versions of this plugin will scan your notifications and do the blocking automatically.” But why would someone code up such an extension? According to mcclure’s README, it’s because NFTs are an “investment scam.” They don’t mince their words: “In short, NFT users are just irritat...
