Crypto news
Museums in the metaverse: How Web3 technology can help historical sites
Metaverse events at ancient and historical sites could soon shape up to be an alternate future for tourism. Owners of physical castles and villas who have drafted up augmented reality blueprints of their properties think their ambitious plans to attract visitors in the metaverse will work, as virtual events can help them pay the hefty maintenance bills for their aging properties and also offer a chance to change historical narratives. The metaverse tourism model was expedited by downturns in tourism brought about by COVID-19, but the industry may have already been heading that way. Currently, major metaverse platforms are clunky, difficult to use and waiting for more “real estate” development, but firms are concentrating on what could be. Brands seem to be entering the metaverse en m...
Coinbase suspends crypto payment services days after India launch
The largest US-based crypto exchange Coinbase has stopped payment services through United Payments Interface (UPI) on its platform for Indian users just three days after its launch in the South Asian subcontinent. The UPI is the payment portal governed by the National Payment Corporation of India (NPCI), which facilitates buy orders on Coinbase’s India services. The exchange has already updated its payment method information on its website for Indian users, which urges users to try Immediate Payment Service (IMP) to place sell orders. The NPCI is a special division of the Reserve Bank of India (RBI), under the Ministry of Finance. Financial news outlet Business Standard reported on April 11 that Coinbase stated that it would work to remedy the situation in India with the appropriate regula...
EU bans providing ‘high-value crypto-asset services’ to Russia
The Council of the European Union has cut Russians off from certain cryptocurrency services as part of a package of restrictive measures against Russian President Vladimir Putin’s “brutal aggression against Ukraine and its people.” In a Friday announcement, the EU council said it would be closing potential loopholes in using digital assets for Russian entities and individuals to evade sanctions with a “prohibition on providing high-value crypto-asset services” to the country. The action was one of three financial measures the European Commission proposed alongside banning transactions and freezing assets connected to four Russian banks as well as a “prohibition on providing advice on trusts to wealthy Russians.” Russian Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin claimed on Thursday that Russians hol...
6 Questions for Michelle Legge of Koinly
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 Michelle Legge, head of crypto tax education at Koinly — a cryptocurrency tax calculator and portfolio tracker for traders, investors and accountants. Alongside her work at Koinly, Michelle is passionate about closing the financial literacy gap for women. Before crossing into the crypto space, she looked after consumer education for an Australian fintech startup, where she launched a world-first gender-pay-gap insurance product. Today, Michelle is back in her homeland of South Africa, living the digital nomad life and managing a remote team of content and social media wizards from plant-based...
Bitcoin battles for weekly close above $42K as LFG buys 4,130 more BTC
Bitcoin (BTC) prepared for its lowest weekly close of the month so far on April 10 after a week of disappointing losses. BTC/USD 1-hour candle chart (Bitstamp). Source: TradingView Trader: BTC “giving people a second chance” Data from Cointelegraph Markets Pro and TradingView showed BTC/USD circling $42,700 Sunday with a matter of hours to go until the conclusion of the weekly candle. The pair had fallen into the end of Wall Street trading Friday, while the weekend provided some nervous calm as $42,000 support remained intact. For popular trader and analyst Rekt Capital, there was still cause for optimism despite the past seven days seeing losses of nearly 10%. This #BTC pullback is a second chance for a lot of people If you promised yourself that you’ll buy $BT...
Top 5 cryptocurrencies to watch this week: BTC, NEAR, FTT, ETC, XMR
Bitcoin (BTC) dropped from a high of $47,200 on April 5 to a low of $42,107 on April 8, indicating possible selling by short-term traders who may have preferred to lock in their profits. However, the price action is still stuck in a tight range during the weekend, indicating that supply and demand are in balance. Although the Crypto Fear & Greed Index is in the fear zone, Bitcoin whales on crypto exchange Bitfinex remained unfazed and continued to purchase BTC. Interestingly, one large investor continued to buy $1 million of Bitcoin every day, without attempting to time the market, using the strategy of dollar-cost averaging. Crypto market data daily view. Source: Coin360 Another whale that utilized the dip to add more Bitcoin to its existing stockpile was Terra. This week, the wallet ...
Inside the blockchain developers’ mind: Building truly free-to-use DApps
Cointelegraph is following the development of an entirely new blockchain from inception to mainnet and beyond through its series, Inside the Blockchain Developer’s Mind, written by Andrew Levine of Koinos Group. In myprevious article, I explained from first principles what was needed to build a truly free-to-use social decentralized application (DApp) and how Koinos is that solution. In that article, I explained that to deliver a truly free-to-use DApp, it must be possible for someone other than the end-user to provide the network resources (“mana” in the case of Koinos) required to run a given smart contract. Blockchain mana Now that we understand why Koinos is designed the way it is (to support free-to-use experiences), I’m going to explain in more detail how this works. One of the innov...
Monero defies crypto market slump with 10% XMR price rally — what’s next?
Privacy-focused cryptocurrency Monero (XMR) rallied by nearly 9.5% in the past week compared with the crypto market’s decline of 8.5% in the same period. What’s more, the XMR/USD pair has broken above a strong, multi-month resistance trendline, hinting at more upside ahead. XMR price action XMR’s price was down by a modest 0.87% on April 10 from its two-month-high of $245 established a day before. However, the cryptocurrency still outperformed its top rivals, including Bitcoin (BTC) and Ether (ETH), on a weekly timeframe. Speculations about entities using Monero to bypass sanctions could have boosted its appeal among investors. Meanwhile, The American research group Brookings warned last month that Monero, the first in the line of privacy coins, could...
Binance receives in-principle approval to operate in Abu Dhabi
Binance, the world’s biggest crypto exchange in terms of trading volume, received in-principle approval to operate in Abu Dhabi, marking its third regulatory approval in the Middle Eastern region after Bahrain and Dubai. The in-principle approval from the Abu Dhabi Global Market (ADGM) allows Binance to operate as a broker-dealer in digital assets including cryptocurrencies — marking yet another milestone for the crypto exchange, which envisions to operate as a fully-licensed firm. @binance, one of the world’s leading #blockchain and #cryptocurrency platforms, received an IPA from the #ADGM Financial Services Regulator Authority. pic.twitter.com/jhHenzaahE — Abu Dhabi Global Market (@ADGlobalMarket) April 10, 2022 ADGM serves as an international financial free zone within the c...
Here’s what’s happening in Web3 across Africa
Whatever you prefer to call it — crypto, blockchain or Web3 — this new segment of the digital economy is booming across Africa. If you’ve been sleeping on the sector, now’s a good time to wake up. Why? Well for one, according to analytics firm Chainalysis, Africa’s crypto market increased in value by more than 1,200% between July 2020 and June 2021. Led by especially high adoption rates in Kenya, South Africa, Nigeria and Tanzania, Africa had the third-fastest growing cryptocurrency economy worldwide during that period. And that’s not all. Chainalysis also found that Africa leads the world in the share of overall crypto transaction volume coming from peer-to-peer, an indication that African consumers in crypto-unfriendly jurisdictions are increasingly finding workarounds to explicit and im...
Price analysis 4/8: BTC, ETH, BNB, SOL, XRP, ADA, LUNA, AVAX, DOT, DOGE
Bitcoin (BTC) and most major altcoins are attempting to defend the immediate support levels, indicating that bears sense an opportunity and are looking to take control of the price action. The short-term price action does not seem to worry the long-term Bitcoin bulls who expect a massive return in the next few years. While speaking at the Bitcoin 2022 conference in Miami, ARK Invest CEO Cathie Wood reiterated her Bitcoin price target of $1 million by 2030. Meanwhile, telecom billionaire Ricardo Salinas said during the conference that BTC and Bitcoin equities form 60% of his liquid investment portfolio. That is a massive increase from his Bitcoin exposure in 2020, which formed just 10% of his liquid assets. Daily cryptocurrency market performance. Source: Coin360 While the long-term may be ...
Number of UK crypto firms operating under FCA temporary registration status drops
The number of firms permitted to offer crypto services to U.K. residents under temporary registration status from the Financial Conduct Authority has dropped from 12 to five. According to a Thursday update to its list of “Cryptoasset firms with Temporary Registration,” the United Kingdom’s financial regulator named CEX.IO, Revolut, Copper, Globalblock and Moneybrain as companies in the crypto space allowed to operate in the country in addition to the 34 registered crypto asset firms the FCA has approved since August 2020. The FCA said on March 30 that it would be extending the temporary registration status for “a small number of firms where it is strictly necessary,” which included 12 companies at the time. In the United Kingdom, firms permitted to “carry out crypto ...
