Crypto news
Monero ‘falling wedge’ breakout positions XMR price for 75% rally
Monero (XMR) price dropped by nearly 10% three days after establishing a week-to-date high around $290 on April 24. Nonetheless, several technical indicators suggest that the XMR/USD pair is poised to resume its uptrend over the next few months. Falling wedge breakout underway Notably, XMR’s price broke out of its “falling wedge” structure in late March. It continued its move upside in the later daily sessions, with rising volumes indicating bullish sentiment among Monero traders. Traditional analysts consider falling wedges as bullish reversal patterns, i.e., the price first consolidates within a contracting, descending channel, followed by a strong bounce to the upside. As a rule, the falling wedge’s breakout target comes to be near the level at length equal to th...
The loss of privacy: Why we must fight for a decentralized future
If you’re into cryptocurrency or blockchain, there’s a good chance I don’t have to spell out the benefits of decentralization. You’re a first-generation user of a technology that will increasingly define the future of the internet, and you have front-row seats to the world premiere of Web3. The internet’s use and control were always as centralized as we see now. In the early days, under the stewardship of the United States Department of Defense, the network needed not to rely on one core computer. What if a terrorist attack or missile strike took down the principal node? Individual network parts had to communicate without relying on a single computer to reduce vulnerability. Later, the unincorporated Internet Engineering Task Force, which facilitated the development of all internet protoco...
Looking to take out a crypto loan? Here’s what you need to know
Loans based on cryptocurrencies have become a mainstay of the decentralized finance (DeFi) universe ever since the smart contract-based lending/borrowing platforms began offering the service to crypto users. The Ethereum network, the first blockchain that scaled the smart contract functionality, sees most of the total value locked (TVL) on DeFi protocols dominated by cryptocurrency lending platforms. According to data from DeFi Pulse, the top 4 of 10 DeFi protocols are lending protocols that account for $37.04 billion in TVL, just 49% of TVL of the entire DeFi market on the Ethereum blockchain. Ethereum leads in terms of being the most utilized blockchain for the DeFi market and the TVL on the network. Maker and Aave are the biggest players here, with a TVL of $14.52 billion and $11.19 bil...
Binance recovers $5.8M in funds connected to Ronin bridge exploit
Via a Twitter post on Friday, Changpeng Zhao, CEO of Binance, said that the cryptocurrency exchange recovered $5.8 million spread over 86 accounts in digital assets moved to the exchange by Lazarus Group. Last month, the North Korean cyber-criminal group allegedly stole 173,600 Ether (ETH) and 25.5 million USD Coin (USDC), worth over $600 million at the time, belonging to Axie Infinity’s Ronin bridge. As of Friday, the wallet address associated with the Ronin has around $280 million in digital assets remaining. Blockchain forensics company Elliptic recently uncovered that the hackers have been sending the money to centralized exchanges and cryptocurrency trail-mixer decentralized application, or DApp, Tornado Cash. In addition, it appears the hackers also swapped the stolen USD...
Crypto Biz: The Web3 arms race is upon us, April 14–20, 2022
“Web3” used to be an empty industry buzzword that described the next iteration of the internet. In 2022, Web3 is still an annoying buzzword, but at least the blockchain community is trying to assign it real-world utility. This week’s Crypto Biz newsletter features several major funding rounds dedicated to building the Web3 economy. After reading through the stories, you can decide whether we’re actually getting closer to defining Web3. Oh, and remember all the buzz surrounding Special Purpose Acquisition Companies, or SPACs? A crypto-focused SPAC just closed an initial public offering on the Nasdaq, raising $115 million in the process. Framework Ventures allocates half of $400M fund to Web3 gaming Remember DeFi Summer 2020? Well, venture capitalists are gearing up for Web3 Summer 202...
Here is why Germany is ranked the most crypto-friendly country
In her monthly Expert Take column, Selva Ozelli, an international tax attorney and CPA, covers the intersection between emerging technologies and sustainability, and provides the latest developments around taxes, AML/CFT regulations and legal issues affecting crypto and blockchain. Germany has risen to the top spot of Coincub’s guide to the most crypto-friendly countries in Q1 2022. The European country allows its long-term domestic savings industry to utilize crypto investments, supported by its zero-tax policy on long-term capital gains from crypto, and its number of Bitcoin and Ethereum nodes is second only to the United States. Blockchain adoption In 2019, Germany was the first country to adopt a blockchain strategy to harness the technology’s potential for advancing digital transforma...
NY Sen. Thomas proposes to criminalize rug pulls and other crypto frauds
New York State Senator Kevin Thomas introduced a new bill amendment request to establish certain offenses related to rug pulls and other frauds related to virtual token distribution, misuse of private keys and hidden interests in crypto projects. The bill drafted by Sen. Thomas, Senate Bill S8839, calls for defining, penalizing and criminalizing frauds specifically targeted at developers and projects that intend to dupe crypto investors. A snippet of Senate Bill S8839. Source: nysenate.gov Through the bill, Thomas seeks to provide prosecutors with a clear legal framework against crypto crimes that align with the spirit of the blockchain while combatting fraud. It calls for a law amendment that will imply rug pull charges on developers that sell “more than 10% of such tokens within fiv...
Finance Redefined: Hacker bungles DeFi exploit, dYdx’s decentralization goals, and more
The decentralized finance (DeFi) ecosystem was filled with ups and downs —mostly the latter— this week, with two very distinct hack attempts and a heartbreaking departure of a DeFi veteran. In this week’s newsletter, we will also look at derivative exchange dYdX’s plans to go fully decentralized by the end of the year. The price momentum of the DeFi tokens remained neutral, with several tokens registering a bullish surge. However, the market volatility meant many of them couldn’t hold onto those gains. Hacker bungles DeFi exploit: Leaves stolen $1M in contract set to self destruct In a rare comedic bungle among DeFi exploits, an attacker has fumbled their heist at the finish line leaving behind over $1 million in stolen crypto. Blockchain security and analytics firm BlockSec shared o...
Coinbase NFT launches beta, AMC Theatres rolls out SHIB and DOGE payments, and Blockchain.com eyes IPO: Hodler’s Digest, April 17-23
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 AMC Theatres mobile app accepts Dogecoin, Shiba Inu and more Retail traders’ favorite cinema chain, AMC Theatres, updated its mobile app to support Dogecoin and Shiba Inu payments. United States-based customers using Apple or Android phones can both download the app and spend their highly volatile memecoins on movie tickets. The firm first teased the idea back in January, after rolling out payment support for Bitcoin, Ether, Bitcoin Cash and Litecoin in November. AMC is able to accept crypto paymen...
Why does Ethereum have an intrinsic value?
Ethereum is shifting from a proof-of-work (PoW) to a proof-of-stake (PoS) governance mechanism in the foreseeable future, resulting in a faster and more efficient blockchain. The Ethereum Network has experienced a considerable spike in transactions volume and size since DeFi and NFTs have captured the finance and art worlds. Such traffic has often caused systemic bottlenecks with a significant rise in fees that have made the blockchain unsustainable. To bring Ethereum into the mainstream and support an increasing number of transactions, the need for a substantial transformation emerged. The upgrade from PoW to PoS will make Ethereum more scalable, efficient and sustainable while securing its fundamental decentralization. The upgrade will occur only at the backend within a technic...
Increased adoption of Metaverse NFTs will power the next NFT growth cycle
Metaverses and blue-chip nonfungible tokens (NFTs) are the driving forces behind the dramatic growth in the NFT market. Projects like the Bored Apes, Crypto Punks, Azuki, Clone X and Doodles collections have steadily attracted collectors’ interest in the past year. As a result, these NFT projects have helped the NFT market achieve a growth rate of over 20,000% and a sales volume of approximately $17 billion. For an industry that once occupied a tiny sliver of attention within the crypto/blockchain world, it’s clear that NFTs are here to stay despite earlier critiques of their ephemeral nature. However, given the recent lull in the NFT markets, investors and collectors alike are now seeking new frontiers where they can capitalize on the innovative application of NFT technology i...
Beyond collectibles: How NFTs are revamping the ticketing industry
The concept of nonfungible tokens (NFT) came into existence in 2015, and it first got some traction in 2017 when many prominent digital collectibles such as CryptoPunks and EtherRock were created. NFTs got early traction among premier sports clubs but burst into mainstream popularity after digital artist Beeple’s artwork was sold as an NFT for over $69 million. The Beeple event caught the attention of the world and proved to be a breakout movement for the NFT ecosystem. Today, most of the mainstream household brands, premium sports and clothing brands, celebrities, sports stars and influencers have got involved in the NFT frenzy. While many believed the hype and frenzy around the market would become the cause of its downfall, the NFT ecosystem has seen a rapid expansion beyond the di...
