crypto blog
Crypto mainstream adoption: Is it here already? Experts Answer, Part 3
Sebastian is the chief strategy officer at Coinsource, a Bitcoin ATM provider in the United States. “In 2022, we expect more countries to follow El Salvador’s lead and adopt Bitcoin as legal tender, particularly countries across Latin America and Asia. As a result, we anticipate an increase in the number of Bitcoin ATMs across Latin America, and also in Europe. As new countries adopt, it is likely U.S. dominance in the crypto industry will be reduced. Regulation of crypto will continue into 2022, which is generally a good thing. However, it must be reasonable and fairly applicable to all. We have the potential to solve compliance in many of the protocols once and for all, so we need to double down on this. The industry is on a good path to increase the standards by whic...
7 NFL players that chose crypto over cash salaries
For NFL fans, 2021 was a great year. Stadiums returned to capacity crowds after the 2020 season was shortened with limited attendance. Stadium parking lots were again filled with the enthusiastic anticipation of tailgaters and their barbequed camaraderie. It was also a great year for Bitcoin (BTC) investors as the largest cryptocurrency by market capitalization reached all-time high prices multiple times throughout 2021, eventually topping out at $69,000 in early November. This led to a dramatic increase in media coverage of Bitcoin. Seven NFL players in 2021 decided to call the audible and begin either being paid in crypto or having their cash salary partially converted to crypto. These players have capitalized on the return of the regular season and the increased profitability of B...
Top crypto winners and losers of 2021
The year 2021 has undoubtedly been a bull market with Bitcoin (BTC) raising the all-time high price bar several times this year. But not all crypto assets have performed equally. There have been a number of losers in addition to the majority of winners in terms of price gains. Since the beginning of 2021, total crypto market capitalization has gained 190% from just under $800 million to over $2.3 trillion today. It hit an all-time high of just over $3 trillion in early November. Top 3 crypto gainers in 2021 The crypto top-ten in terms of market capitalization looked a little different on Jan. 1, 2021, as it contained Litecoin (LTC), Chainlink (LINK), and Bitcoin Cash (BCH). These have dropped out and have given way to Solana (SOL), USDC, and Avalanche (AVAX) by the year’s end. Dogecoin (DO...
Bitcoin slips under $50K amid warning ‘new player’ Binance whale is pressuring BTC price
Bitcoin (BTC) lost $50,000 for the first time in several days on Dec. 26 as exchange inflows caught up with the cautiously optimistic mood. BTC/USD 1-hour candle chart (Bitstamp). Source: TradingView “New player” beefs up $50,000 sell wall Data from Cointelegraph Markets Pro and TradingView showed volatility hitting BTC/USD overnight on Saturday. The pair had reached $51,500 before starting to retrace, this culminating in a dip to $49,644. At the time of writing, Bitcoin was back circling $50,000. The move came in tandem with a rise in inflows to major exchange Binance, with order book data showing a new wall of resistance being built at $50,000. Binance order book heatmap chart. Source: Material Indicators The behavior points to a large-volume investor shaping market bias...
Indian police commissioner issues a public warning against crypto frauds
The Additional Commissioner of Police Shikha Goel warned Indian citizens about the rise in cybercrime in an event hosted by the city police of Hyderabad, India, suggesting not to transfer cryptocurrencies to unauthorized private wallets. Goel highlighted the various methods that are actively being used by fraudsters to dupe investors such as lucrative investment opportunities, illegitimate bank transfers and cryptocurrencies. Acknowledging the growth of Indian crypto users, Goel added: “They [fraudsters] ask you to share your cryptocurrency details. And once you put it in your wallet, then the money is taken away.” After simplifying the elaborate fraud in a sentence, Goel also highlighted that sixteen such cases have been registered involving cryptocurrencies. Do not transfer your cryptocu...
What is a honeypot crypto scam and how to spot it?
What is a crypto honeypot and why is it used? Smart contracts programs across a decentralized network of nodes can be executed on modern blockchains like Ethereum. Smart contracts are becoming more popular and valuable, making them a more appealing target for attackers. Several smart contracts have been targeted by hackers in recent years. However, a new trend appears to be gaining traction; namely, attackers are no longer looking for susceptible contracts but are adopting a more proactive strategy. Instead, they aim to trick their victims into falling into traps by sending out contracts that appear to be vulnerable but contain hidden traps. Honeypots are a term used to describe this unique sort of contract. But, what is a honeypot crypto trap? Honeypots are smart contracts that appear to ...
Binance Turkey fined 8M lira for non-compliance against money laundering
The Financial Crimes Investigation Board (MASAK) has fined Binance Turkey 8 million lira (nearly $750,000) after the crypto exchange failed the financial watchdog’s audit for monitoring Anti-Money Laundering (AML) compliance. The Financial Crimes Investigation Board (MASAK), which serves as Turkey’s financial intelligence unit under the Ministry of Finance and Treasury, found crypto exchange Binance’s Turkey operations guilty of violating laws that intend to prevent the laundering of money acquired through criminal means. According to local news media Anadolu Agency, MASAK carried out an audit of Law No. 5549 on Prevention of Laundering Proceeds of Crime, also known as the AML Law. The AML Law in Turkey requires companies to identify and verify the personal identification information...
Just 1.3 million Bitcoin left circulating on crypto exchanges
In glad tidings for an orange Christmas, Bitcoin (BTC) supply is drying up to lows not seen for years. In a recent tweet by CryptoRank, just 6.3% of the total Bitcoin supply, or 1.3 million BTC, is held on cryptocurrency exchanges. The decreasing supply is nothing new, trending down since the Bitcoin halving in 2020 when the BTC block reward was cut in two. BTC availability on exchanges followed suit, slowly trending down over the past year. Exchange wallets accounted for 9.5% of the BTC supply in October 2020, just before the 2020 Christmas all-time highs, and 7.3% in July this year. The 6.3% December figure is the lowest recorded in 2021. Interestingly, Coinbase’s BTC wallet dominance is also slipping. The American exchange used to custody more BTC than all other exchanges combined...
Industry experts reveal a possible method for Bank of Russia to block crypto
Amid the ongoing uncertainty about the future of cryptocurrencies in Russia, one local industry executive has disclosed a potential method for the Bank of Russia to block crypto transactions. Andrey Mikhaylishin, CEO of the local crypto payment startup Joys, said that the Russian central bank is now considering several potential options to make its crypto ban possible, Forbes Russia reported Friday. One of the possible restriction methods includes blocking debit card payments to crypto exchanges or wallets using merchant category codes (MCC), Mikhaylishin said. The report notes that the executive became aware of this blocking method from Bank of Russia employees. MCC codes are four-digit numbers used by credit card processors such as Visa or Mastercard to describe a merchant’s primary...
Bitcoin ‘Santa rally’ pauses at $51.5K as funds bet on a sub-$60K BTC price for January 2022
Bitcoin (BTC) lost momentum at $51,500 on Dec. 24 as traders weighed the odds of a “Santa rally” coming true for Christmas. BTC/USD 1-hour candle chart (Bitstamp). Source: TradingView BTC sees potent long-term retest Data from Cointelegraph Markets Pro and TradingView saw BTC/USD preserve its gains from Dec. 23, these totaling 6% with resistance most recently kicking in at just above $51,500. Opinions were mixed among weary traders about the strength of the rally and whether it could endure for long. Still in its familiar range despite the overnight uptick, Bitcoin needed to show its muscle on longer timeframes, Cointelegraph reported analysis as saying earlier. For filbfilb, co-founder of trading platform Decentrader, a combination of low funding rates and top ...
Spreading holiday joy through charitable giving with cryptocurrency
The holidays are the perfect time of the year for giving back, and the rise of cryptocurrencies has created even more opportunities for charitable initiatives. This was highlighted during Giving Tuesday 2021, the Tuesday after Thanksgiving which saw over $2.4 million raised in cryptocurrency from the nonprofit fundraising platform The Giving Block. As crypto philanthropy becomes a new subsector of the cryptocurrency economy, some in the industry believe that crypto donations will only continue to increase. Alex Wilson, co-founder of The Giving Block, told Cointelegraph that last year the organization raised about $4 million in crypto donations, noting that this year, over $100 million in crypto donations will likely be received. According to Wilson, this growth is partly due to the fact th...
Bitcoin battles bears ‘on offense’ as Christmas delivers a $50K BTC gift
Bitcoin (BTC) held $50,000 into Dec. 25 as BTC bulls avoided an unwelcome Christmas Day surprise. BTC/USD 1-hour candle chart (Bitstamp). Source: TradingView “Bears become bulls” short term? Data from Cointelegraph Markets Pro and TradingView showed BTC/USD maintaining $50,000 support into the weekend, having ranged after local highs above $51,500. The pair was calm as the holiday season got underway, with thinner liquidity yet to show itself in the form of volatile price moves. With most taking a break from trading and analysis, the nearest target to the upside remained the $1 trillion market cap valuation level at $53,000. For popular trader Pentoshi, a point of friction could come in the form of sellers actively driving down BTC/USD to liquidity at $46,000, only to then...
