Crypto news
Blockchain technology can help create safe and inclusive adult platforms
The cryptocurrency market is no stranger to speculation. Consider that despite this industry’s growth, many continue to view these assets and associated technologies as a bubble that is about to burst. As history has proven, overcoming the technology adoption curve comes down to a major use case, or the so-called “killer app.” Although there is no clear frontrunner, the adult entertainment industry has proven to significantly advance new technology iterations in the past and presents an interesting proposition for the future of cryptocurrencies. The adult entertainment industry is believed to be worth billions of dollars, giving it significant influence over the world’s leading technologies. Although it doesn’t create these new technologies, it is ...
Crypto contagion deters investors in near term, but fundamentals stay strong
The past six-odd months have been nothing short of a financial soap opera for the cryptocurrency market, with more drama seemingly unfolding every other day. To this point, since the start of May, a growing number of major crypto entities have been tumbling like dominoes, with the trend likely to continue in the near term. The contagion, for the lack of a better word, was sparked by the collapse of the Terra ecosystem back in May, wherein the project’s associated digital currencies became worthless almost overnight. Following the event, crypto lending platform Celsius faced bankruptcy. Then Zipmex, a Singapore-based cryptocurrency exchange, froze all customer withdrawals, a move that was mirrored by crypto financial service provider Babel Finance late last month. It is worth noting that si...
Bitcoin due ‘one of greatest bull markets’ as July gains circle 20%
Bitcoin (BTC) spoofed a breakout to fresh six-week highs into July 31 as a showdown for both the weekly and monthly close drew near. BTC/USD 1-hour candle chart (Bitstamp). Source: TradingView “Bart Simpson” greets traders into BTC monthly close Data from Cointelegraph Markets Pro and TradingView showed BTC/USD canceling out all its gains from early in the weekend, dropping from $24,670 to $23,555 in hours. The resulting chart structure was all too familiar to long-term market participants, creating a “Bart Simpson” shape on hourly timeframes. Liquidations nonetheless remained manageable, with the cross-crypto tally totaling $150 million in the 24 hours to the time of writing, according to data from analytics resource Coinglass — less than on previous days. Crypto liquidations chart. ...
6 Questions for Kim Hamilton Duffy of Centre
We ask the buidlers in the blockchain and cryptocurrency sector for their thoughts on the industry… and throw in a few random zingers to keep them on their toes! This week, our 6 Questions go to Kim Hamilton Duffy, director of identity and standards at Centre Consortium — an open-source technology project designed to create a more inclusive global economy. Kim is a leader in the emerging decentralized identity field and has architected successful open-source projects such as Verite, Blockcerts and the Digital Credential Consortium toolkit. 1 — Which countries are doing the most to support blockchain, and which ones will be left behind? Rather than assessing this through the narrow lens of whether certain crypto transactions are taxed, I think about whether countries are supporting innovati...
Charles Schwab’s asset management arm launches crypto-linked ETF
Schwab Asset Management, the asset management arm of financial giant Charles Schwab, has launched an exchange-traded fund (ETF) with exposure to firms linked to cryptocurrencies. In a Friday announcement, Schwab said its Crypto Thematic ETF was expected to be available for trading on the New York Stock Exchange’s Arca under the ticker STCE on Aug. 4. The fund tracks Schwab’s Crypto Thematic Index, providing an investment vehicle with exposure to companies “that may benefit from the development or utilization of cryptocurrencies and other digital assets.” Likely because the United States Securities and Exchange Commission, or SEC, has not given the green light to ETFs providing direct exposure to Bitcoin (BTC), the Schwab fund will indirectly invest in crypto through companies. Schwab...
Bitcoin bear market over, metric hints as BTC exchange balances hit 4-year low
Bitcoin (BTC) may already be beginning its new macro uptrend if historical “hodl” habits repeat. That was the conclusion from research into the latest data covering the amount of the BTC supply dormant for one year or more as of July 2022. Hodled BTC hints that the bear market is over According to independent analyst Miles Johal, who uploaded the findings to social media on July 29, a “rounded top” formation in “hodled” BTC is in the process of completing. Once it does, the price should react — just like on multiple occasions before. The clue lies in Bitcoin’s HODL Waves metric, which breaks down the supply according to when each Bitcoin last moved. One year ago or more — the one-year HODL Wave — currently reflects the majority of the supply. Johal’s accompanying ch...
Ticketmaster scouts productization of enterprise NFTs beyond ticketing
A new job posting by America’s biggest ticketing company, Ticketmaster, reveals mainstream interest in exploring new revenue streams using nonfungible tokens (NFTs). Over the past two years, artists, musicians and the sports industry helped thrust the NFT ecosystem into the limelight as the technology served its purpose as a powerful fan engagement tool. Conversely, most of the general public boarded the hype train seeking profits via reselling collectibles in the secondary markets. With the NFT hype eventually slowing down by mid-2022, entrepreneurs and companies are looking for new use cases beyond collectibles. A study conducted by Big 4 accounting firm Deloitte in May 2022 highlighted the untapped potential of the crypto ecosystem to open up newer markets for the sports industry:...
Hong Kong university to inaugurate mixed reality classroom in Metaverse
The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (HKUST) announced to host the launch party of a virtual reality classroom over the Metaverse on September 1. The launch marks the commencement of HKUST’s plan to promote immersive learning by building a virtual campus in the Metaverse, to be called MetaHKUST. An academic from the HKUST institution told South China Morning Post that the launch of the mixed reality classroom represents the opening of a new campus in the city of Guangzhou, Hong Kong. Pan Hui, chair professor of computational media and arts at the Guangzhou campus, added that: “A lot of guests might be overseas and can’t attend [the opening], so we will host it in the metaverse.” By building MetaHKUST, the institution plans to create a learning environment that virtually conne...
Ethereum will outpace Visa with zkEVM Rollups, says Polygon co-founder
zkEVM Rollups, a new scaling solution for Ethereum, will allow the smart contract protocol to outpace Visa in terms of transaction throughput, said Polygon co-founder Mihailo Bjelic in a recent interview with Cointelegraph. Polygon recently claimed to be the first to implement a zkEVM scaling solution, which aims at reducing Ethereum’s transaction costs and improving its throughput. This layer-2 protocol can bundle together several transactions and then relay them to the Ethereum network as a single transaction. The solution, according to Bjelic, represents the Holy Grail of Web3 as it offers security, scalability and full compatibility with Ethereum, which means developers won’t have to learn a new programing language to work with it. “When you launch a scaling solution,...
KuCoin crypto exchange debuts USDT-dominated NFT ETF
Seychelles-headquartered cryptocurrency exchange KuCoin has launched an exchange-traded fund (ETF) tied to major nonfungible token (NFT) assets like Bored Ape Yacht Club (BAYC). KuCoin’s NFT ETF Trading Zone went live on Friday, the firm announced. The new investment product is launched in collaboration with NFT infrastructure provider Fracton Protocol. The KuCoin NFT ETF is a Tether (USDT)-dominated product that marks particular underlying NFT assets like Bored Ape Yacht Club. BAYC is one of five NFT ETFs that KuCoin is launching. Trading under the symbol hiBAYC, the asset is an ERC-20 token representing 1/1,000,000 ownership of the target BAYC in the BAYC meta-swap of Fracton Protocol. The ETF aims to increase liquidity as it enables exposure to NFTs via the USDT stablecoin instead of Et...
Pro-Russian groups raised only 4% of crypto donations sent to Ukraine
According to data from crypto analytics firm Chainalysis, users have sent more than $2 million in crypto to 54 pro-Russian groups since Feb. 24, a fraction of that received by many wallets controlled by the Ukrainian government. In a Friday blog post, Chainalysis said it had tracked funds sent to social media accounts controlled by pro-Russian groups in Bitcoin (BTC), Ether (ETH), Litecoin (LTC), USDT-TRX, and Dogecoin (DOGE) starting with the country’s invasion of Ukraine in February. According to Chainalysis’ data, users sent roughly $2.2 million to the pro-Russian groups, with more than $1 million going to a single unnamed account. While there may be other groups outside of Chainalysis’ investigation of those supporting pro-Russian forces, the available data suggested that the $2.2 mill...
Crypto pumps after Fed rate hike, Zuckerberg pins hopes on Metaverse making hundreds of billions and Tesla posts $64M BTC gain: Hodler’s Digest, July 24-30
Coming every Saturday, Hodler’s Digest will help you track every single important news story that happened this week. The best (and worst) quotes, adoption and regulation highlights, leading coins, predictions and much more — a week on Cointelegraph in one link. Top Stories This Week ‘Bullish rate hike’ — Why crypto spiked in the face of bad news Despite the U.S. Federal Reserve announcing a 75-basis-point interest rate hike on Wednesday, the crypto markets pumped significantly on the same day with the momentum continuing through the week. Quantum Economics founder and CEO Mati Greenspan jokingly called it a “bullish rate hike” and stated that investors were clearly expecting far worse. Analysts such as Swyftx’s Pav Hundal suggested the recent rally may be due to an easing of inflationary ...
