Crypto news
Mystery of the whale wallet holding 50% of Axie Infinity’s SLP supply
For nearly a year now, a mysterious Axie Infinity wallet has been quietly amassing billions of Smooth Love Potion (SLP), the in-game cryptocurrency powering one of the industry’s most popular play-to-earn (P2E) crypto games. Today, the anonymous whale wallet now holds a little over 22 billion SLP — more than 50% the total circulating supply of the token. The problem? No one knows who it belongs to and what their intentions are. The wallet in question was brought to Cointelegraph’s attention by Axie Infinity player and tech co-founder Michael Benko, who first caught wind of this mysterious wallet on Aug. 25. Should we be worried? Benko told Cointelegraph he became concerned about the wallet given the amount of SLP it had gathered in a relatively short amount of time, which could poten...
Amid crypto winter, Nexo commits additional $50M to buyback program
Crypto lending platform Nexo has increased the size of its buyback program, giving the company more discretionary ability to repurchase its native token to boost interest payments or make strategic investments in the future. On Tuesday, Nexo disclosed that its board of directors had committed an additional $50 million to buybacks, building off the company’s initial $100 million repurchase program launched in November 2021. The approval green lights the discretionary repurchase of up to $50 million worth of NEXO tokens on the open market. NEXO is the platform’s native cryptocurrency, giving users the ability to earn interest and lock in lower rates for borrowing. The token currently has a market capitalization of $563.6 million and 24-hour trading volumes of $46.7 million, according to Nexo...
Crypto ‘cannot be partisan,’ says US lawmaker who scored negative on bipartisanship index: Report
United States House of Representatives member Tom Emmer has reportedly suggested that regulating and encouraging innovation in the crypto space should not be a political win for either Democrats or Republicans. According to an interview released Tuesday by Axios reporter Brady Dale, Emmer said many of his colleagues in Congress were treating cryptocurrencies as a risk that merited warnings, rather than an investment opportunity for the United States. The U.S. lawmaker added that encouraging figures like FTX CEO Sam Bankman-Fried to stay in the country will open more doors for residents rather than driving them away with regulatory uncertainty. Emmer, who has often pushed back against the “regulation by enforcement” approach some government agencies — including the Securities and Exchange C...
UBS raises US recession odds to 60%, but what does this mean for crypto prices?
On Aug. 30, global investment bank UBS increased its view on the risk of the United States entering a recession within one year to 60%, up from 40% in June. According to economist Pierre Lafourcade, the latest data showed a 94% chance of the economy contracting, but added that it “does not morph into a full-blown recession.” Partially explaining the difference is the “extremely low levels” of non-performing loans, or defaults exceeding 90 days from credit borrowers. According to Citigroup Chief Executive Jane Fraser, the institution “feels very good about” liquidity and credit quality. Furthermore, Reuters states that the financial industry wrote off merely 0.1% of its loans in the 2Q. The problem is that even in the now-improbable scenario of avoiding a...
President of Paraguay vetoes crypto regulation law
Paraguay’s president, Mario Abdo Benítez, vetoed a bill that sought to recognize cryptocurrency mining as an industrial activity on Monday. He reasoned that mining’s high electricity consumption could hinder the expansion of a sustainable national industry. The decree stated that crypto mining uses intensive capital with low manpower usage, and therefore would not generate added value on par with other industrial activities. Around the world, cryptocurrency is one of the largest job creators. The LinkedIn’s Economic Graph shows that crypto and blockchain jobs listing rose 615% in 2021 compared to 2020 in the United States. In accordance with the bill’s sponsor, Senator Fernando Silva Facetti, the law aimed to promote crypto mining through the use of surplus el...
Singer, Songwriter and Actor Jencarlos Canela to Launch Personal and Professional Lifestyle NFT Series On The ReserveBlock RBX Network
Miami, United States, 30th August, 2022, Chainwire With Interactive Fan Voting To Determine Release Direction and Outcomes American singer, songwriter, and actor phenom Jencarlos Canela announced today to his 4 million social media followers & fans, that he will be releasing a personal and professional lifestyle NFT series utilizing the ReserveBlock (reserveblock.io) protocol. The series will cover a variety of both personal and professional aspects of Jencarlos’ life and career including music, acting and lifestyle interactions, mental health and life performance coaching, and exclusive apparel subscriptions. The series is expected to be extremely diverse and packed with unique utility that delivers well beyond digital ownership by way of ongoing experiences, interactivity...
Flare Network and Lena Instruments launch new crowdfunding mechanism
Interoperability-focused blockchain Flare Network has partnered with software infrastructure firm Lena Instruments to implement a crowdfunding mechanism that lowers the risks associated with startup investing. Lena Instruments announced what it called a “CloudFunding” launchpad, which lets Flare investors allocate a percentage of the rewards that they earned to investments in new crypto startups without moving their initial investments. Apart from providing a low-risk investing solution for its contributors, the platform also aims to help projects that have launched on the platform have regular cash flows during the reward distribution periods. Hugo Philion, the CEO of Flare Network, believes that the new mechanism is a good way for developers to get early access to community f...
Crypto developers should work with the SEC to find common ground
Regulators are tasked with balancing between protecting consumers and creating environments where entrepreneurs and the private sector can thrive. When markets face distortions, perhaps due to an externality or information asymmetry, regulation can play an important role. But regulation can also stifle entrepreneurship and business formation, leaving society and its people worse off. The United States Securities and Exchange Commission has been particularly hostile against cryptocurrency companies and entrepreneurs. For example, SEC Chairman Gary Gensler has remarked that he views Bitcoin (BTC) as a commodity but that many other “crypto financial assets have the key attributes of a security.” He reiterated the line in an explosive Aug. 19 op-ed penned for The Wall Street Journal, arguing t...
Crypto market turmoil highlights risks of leverage in trading
Leveraged trading of cryptocurrencies — i.e., trading crypto with borrowed funds — comes with significant risks. This is mainly due to the capricious nature of the market. In May, the cryptocurrency market, which had grown significantly over the past couple of years, recoiled violently following a cascade of negative market events, losing over 50% of its market cap. The pullback, which caused a jarring $2 trillion market wipeout, also exposed some of the market’s biggest weaknesses. One of them was the reckless use of leverage in a market that is historically mercurial. This aspect was recently affirmed by billionaire investor Mike Novogratz. Novogratz, a fierce crusader for the industry at large and a once-ardent supporter of the Terra ecosystem before its downfall. He recently acknowledg...
Bitcoin erases latest gains with BTC price back below $20K as dollar spikes
Bitcoin (BTC) fell back below $20,000 after the Aug. 30 Wall Street open as data showed hodlers selling at a loss. BTC/USD 1-hour candle chart (Bitstamp). Source: TradingView June lows look increasingly attractive Data from Cointelegraph Markets Pro and TradingView captured the latest dive below the 2017 bull market peak for BTC/USD, with United States equities dropping in step. The S&P 500 and Nasdaq Composite Index lost 1.1% and 1.25% in the first hour, respectively, while BTC/USD shed 2.5% during a single hourly candle. The latest moves came as no surprise to traders already wary of a deeper correction for the largest cryptocurrency. Previously, many had called for a retracement toward the macro lows seen in June. For popular trader Crypto Ed, both Bitcoin and Ether (ETH) offered go...
Ethereum scaling network Arbitrum set for major upgrade on Aug. 31
Ethereum layer-2 scaling solution Arbitrum is set to undergo one of its most significant upgrades on Wednesday, set to increase transaction throughput, slash transaction fees and simplify cross-chain communication between Arbitrum and Ethereum. Referred to as the “Nitro” upgrade, Arbitrum reconfirmed the date of the upgrade in a Twitter post on Aug. 29, confirming that the upgrade will take effect on Aug. 31 at 10:30 AM Eastern Time, while noting a two to four hours of network downtime period is to be expected. Reminder — Arbitrum One is upgrading to Nitro on Wednesday 8/31. There will be 2-4 hours of planned network downtime, starting 10:30 AM ET / GMT-4. 2️⃣ days until Nitro! — Arbitrum (@arbitrum) August 29, 2022 Abritrum is an Ethereum layer-2 scaling solution that utiliz...
Binance Aus ramping up measures to protect vulnerable users, says CEO
Binance Australia is tightening up its onboarding process for new users as part of a push to protect users it’s flagged as most vulnerable to financial crypto crime. The new measures were mentioned in Binance Australia’s June quarter Economic, Social, and Governance (ESG) report on Aug. 29, which noted that the exchange was working on a “stringent and user-focused onboarding experience” aimed at groups with a higher occurrence of financial crime. Speaking with Cointelegraph, Binance Aus CEO Leigh Travers and Zachary Lu from the exchange’s Financial Crime, Risk and Compliance unit, noted the company has been actively working on ways to protect “vulnerable users” — which starts from the onboarding process. “From the whole financial management perspective, we are really looking at it fr...
